Ruth Richards walked her way to 100

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July 27, 2013 - 12:00 AM

Friday is a special day for Ruth Richards. She’ll be 100.
If she were able, there are few things Ruth would rather do than walk from her home on East Spruce Street to Ray’s Mini Mart for a fountain drink.
“That’s what I think helped with her longevity,” said son Larry, also an Iolan. “Mom never learned to drive and she always got a lot of exercise. She walked everywhere,” including daily forays for a fountain drink.
Next Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. there will be a public birthday party for Ruth at First Baptist Church, Cottonwood and Carpenter streets. All the family is coming, and many friends are expected.
Work-a-day experiences through the years helped her develop a broad range of acquaintances.
She worked as a waitress at the Kelley Hotel and Menegays Restaurant many years, and everyone knows how many friendships a good waitress — she was one of the best — develops.

IN LATER years she worked in the kitchen at Allen County Hospital and also part time serving meals in local schools.
 “Mom always enjoyed cooking,” Larry said, and anyone who drives by her home sees ample evidence that she loves flowers.
“I think that’s where John got his interest in flowers,” said Larry of his brother, John, who moved back to Iola a few years ago and lives with their mother.
A favorite meal?
Larry thought a second or two — deciding which to pick — and allowed that his mother’s cheeseburgers were next to impossible to beat.
“She cooked them in an old iron skillet and put the lid on,” after plopping buns on sizzling burgers so they’d get warm and toasty, he said. “Her pasta and cornbread and beans also were hard to beat.”
Ruth came to Iola when she was a young child. Her father, Ralph Conwell, worked in smelters east of Iola and walked each day to work, which made an impression.
The family then lived in the Paola area, Independence and Okmulgee, Okla.
When she and her husband divorced, Ruth returned to Iola in 1958, so she and her five children could be close to her sister, Vina Higginbotham, in Carlyle.
In addition to making a point to keep healthy with daily walks, Ruth fed her soul by seldom missing a service at First Baptist.
She still gets around with a little assistance, but refuses to use a walker.
“She’s independent,” Larry said with a chuckle.
— Bob Johnson

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