Lasting Memories

Ruby Lomax
April 18, 1922-April 14, 2012
Pleasant Hill, California
Submitted by John Lomax

Ruby Lomax passed away Saturday morning, April 14th, just four days short of her 90th birthday. She died peacefully in her sleep at the Chateau III in Pleasant Hill, CA. Ruby Jane Kauffman was born 18 April 1922 in Grafton Township, McHenry Co., IL to August Kauffman and Else Naatz Kauffman. Her earliest years were spent on a farm but then the family moved to Dundee, Illinois.

She attended Lutheran Schools, graduating from High School in 1939. She worked for Hager Pottery and later assembled parts for Elgin watches. She took business school classes becoming proficient as a comptometer operator.

Ruby met her future husband, John Lomax, while volunteering at the Lutheran Service Center in Chicago. He and Ruby spent much of that day together and she invited him to her parent?s home the following weekend. They were engaged on 1 December and were married in the Lutheran Church in Dundee on 3 March 1945.

She worked for Ford Motor Company as a comptometer operator while John was stationed there. When he was transferred to Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, they lived in Oakland and Ruby worked for Boyson Paint Company.

She and John bought a home in Seattle, Washington, in 1947 after his discharge from the Navy, and she worked for Graybar Electric Company for the next four years.

Their first child, William, was born in Palo Alto, California, in 1951 while John attended Stanford University. Gregory was born in Seattle in 1952, as was Lynn in 1954. Kenneth was born in 1959 in Palo Alto.

Ruby was active in the PTA, Girl and Boy Scouts, and in the Mary Martha Guild at church. For 40 years she obtained and arranged flowers for the church altar.

She found time to attend college, obtaining an AA degree in horticulture. She took an extended course in Parent Effectiveness Training and applied those skills in the family as the children grew to adulthood. She and John traveled extensively from 1980 through the next twenty years.

She is survived by her husband John; children William, Gregory, Lynn Grassano, and Kenneth; 8 grandchildren; and brother LeRoy Kauffman.