Ruth Hedstrom

Ruth Elizabeth Hedstrom was born April 18, 1925 to Ephriam and Agnes (Sundgren) Hedstrom near Kackley, KS.  She was the second child of four children.  Ruth attended Country School #99 and Kackley High School, where she was in a class of two, with Agnes Olsen, the last class to graduate from the school, in 1943.

Ruth’s first teaching job was when she was 18, teaching 8 children at the Red Top, near Scandia, KS.  Ruth also taught one year at Oak Creek, 4 years at Courtland Elementary, and three years in Concordia before moving to Lindsborg, KS, to attend Bethany College.  Ruth graduated from Bethany in 1956 with her teaching degree.  After graduation, Ruth taught at Gleniffer Hill Elementary School in Salina for 32 years, coming home every weekend to wash clothes, clean, and cook for her father and brother Herb, who still lived at home.

Ruth had thought that when her mother passed in 1958, that she would have to quit teaching and stay home to help the family, but her father told her if she would teach him how to make chocolate pudding, he thought he could manage the rest of the cooking during the week.

Ruth was a long-time member of several professional associations and unions, including Salina City Teachers, KSTA, NEA, ACE, and Delta Kappa Gamma.

After her retirement from teaching a total of 42 years, she returned to the family farm home.  She became the Ada Lutheran Church Secretary, sang in the choir, served on the Altar Guild, and was always ready to help in whatever capacity she could, to further the life of Ada Church.

Ruth loved God, her Church, and family.  She loved having a garden.  She also loved music and enjoyed singing in the Bethany Messiah Chorus for 25 years.

She leaves to mourn, two sisters-in-law, Joyce Hedstrom (Walter Eugene), Phyllis Hedstrom (Herbert), nieces, nephews, and many friends.  Ruth was preceded in death by her parents, brothers Harold, Herb, and Gene, sisters-in-law Arlene, Erna, and Viola, and niece Regina.

Visitation will be Thursday, October 10th, 2019, from 1:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., with family greeting friends from 6:00 pm to 8:00 p.m., at Tibbetts-Fischer Funeral Home in Belleville.

Funeral Services will be Friday, October 11th, 2019, at 10:30 a.m., at the Ada Lutheran Church, rural Courtland, with Mr. Al Urich officiating. Burial will follow at the Ada Lutheran Cemetery.

Memorials are requested to the Ada Lutheran Church or Country Place Senior Living of Scandia, and may be sent in care of the funeral home.

Tibbetts-Fischer Funeral Home assisted the Hedstrom family with these arrangements.