Ruth Margarette Busby Hudson January 4, 1920 – August 19, 2011

Ruth Margarette Busby Hudson, 91, formerly of Mount Ayr, Iowa, died Friday, August 19, 2011 at Fountain West Health Care Center in West Des Moines, Iowa.  Her life will be celebrated at a service Thursday, August 25, at 2 p.m. at McLaren’s Resthaven Chapel, 801 19th Street, West Des Moines. Inurnment will be in the Resthaven Mausoleum.
    Ruth was born January 4, 1920 near Diagonal, Iowa to Cecil and Almeda Ruby Busby. She attended a one-room school near their farm home and graduated from Mount Ayr high school in 1937. She and Robert Maurice Hudson were married April 9, 1939 in the Mount Ayr Methodist Church and their devotion to each other was to last 72 years until Bob’s death May 23, 2011. In 1954 they moved to Waterloo, Iowa, where Ruth was a secretary for the Waterloo Community school district. They were residents of the Lodge of Ashworth in West Des Moines from September 2003 until March 2011.
    Ruth and Bob were lifelong Methodists and  lovers of music. They participated in many church and musical activities in both Mount Ayr and Waterloo and Ruth often performed as a soprano soloist. They also were longtime members and officers in the Order of Eastern Star and White Shrine. Ruth was an accomplished seamstress and enjoyed all kinds of needlework. She and Bob never forgot their Ringgold county roots and, in recent years, enjoyed attending the annual reunion of ‘Mount Ayrites’ in the Des Moines area.
    Ruth is survived by two daughters, Beverley Duffy of Des Moines, Iowa and Mary Taylor and husband David of Webster Groves, Missouri; four grandsons, Mark Duffy of Des Moines, Iowa, Joel  Duffy and wife Krista of Marion, Iowa, Brian Baetz and wife Jenny of Webster Groves, Missouri and Jonathan  Baetz  and wife Karen of Walnut Creek, California; seven great-grandchildren, Brian’s children, Zachary and Jacqueline Baetz, Jonathan’s children, Julia, Nicholas and Trevor Baetz and Joel’s daughters, Cailin and Rachel Duffy; four stepgrandsons, and eight stepgreat-grandchildren.
    Ruth was preceded in death by her husband, Bob; her parents; her  brothers, John and Ralph Busby, and her sister, Bettie Shaffer.