Ruth E. Anderson

Ruth E. Anderson, age 92 of Grafton, passed away Sunday, March 23, 2025 at the Park River Good Samaritan Center.

Ruth Estella Mitchell Anderson, named after her aunt, Florance Ruth, was born May 15, 1932 in Franklin, Johnson County, Indiana, the daughter of the late Loyd M. Mitchell and Carrie M. Graves.  Ruth was united in marriage to Virgil Leon Anderson on December 19, 1952 and together they raised their six children:  Jenny Lou Anderson, Richard Elliot Anderson, Timothy Frank Anderson, Leland Gene Anderson, Loyd Haven Anderson and Vergil Wade Anderson.

Ruth was born during the depression era and was the first of seven children.  She was known from an early age to be very independent.  She walked to school by herself through the woods by herself at a young age and later rode a horse to school.  She learned how to make do with next to nothing and she learned from her parents that money wasn’t what made everyone happy.  It was pulling together and working hard.  It was sharing clothes with your sisters and it was caring for the younger ones.

As a young married woman, she traveled with her husband and three very little ones as he worked the pipelines.  Sometimes she washed diapers and rolled them up in the car window so they flapped in the wind to dry as they drove to the next site.  She made do!

She loved to paint and her favorite canvas was old saws and clock faces.  It was a treasure to get one of her pieces as a gift.  She loved to crochet and passed that on to her daughter.  She loved to write and frequently wrote small articles for a local newspaper and church.  She loved to share family stories with younger members of the family.  Her specialty was writing about family.  Hopefully some of those will be unearthed.  She loved to read westerns and probably has a stash of Louis L’Amour, Zane Grey and Lauraine Snelling under her bed.  There was a lot of cowgirl in her.  She loved to cook and was very adventurous in things she would try.  She always wanted to do a New England boil so she could just throw the food all over the table.  Nothing made her happier than serving up good food for people.  Everyone was welcome at her table.  She was also a Bible scholar taking classes at Nazarene Bible College in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  She was a strong Christian woman.

Her family will miss her deeply, but have many memories of times they spent together to sustain them and know that she has been welcomed into Heaven.

Ruth is survived by her children:  Jenny Lou Anderson, Richard Elliot Anderson, Timothy Frank Anderson, Leland Gene Anderson, Loyd Haven Anderson and Vergil Wade Anderson; 17 grandchildren, 17 great grandchildren; siblings:  David Graves Mitchell, Roland Loyd Mitchell, Shirley Dean Barnard, Judith Ann Byers, Charles Monroe Mitchell and Elizabeth Gayle Doucey.  She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, three brothers and one sister.

Inurnment will be at a later date at the Turtle Lake Cemetery, Turtle Lake, North Dakota.