Ruby Lewallen Hartman And Harold Cecil Hartman

Ruby (101) and Harold Hartman (99) each passed away peacefully within 24 hours of each other at Morningstar Assisted Living facility in Ft. Collins, Colorado on November 22 and 23, 2024

Harold was in a bed beside Ruby when she passed on, and son David was with Harold, holding his hand, when he passed on 24 hrs. after Ruby.

Ruby was preceded in death by her parents and 8 siblings.

Harold was preceded in death by his wife Ruby, his parents, and 2 siblings.

Harold and Ruby are survived by their three children: daughter Patricia Burket (Boone, Iowa) and sons Warren Hartman and David Hartman (Fort Collins, Colorado), three grandchildren, Hope Rand (husband Michael), Faith Henson (husband Justin), and Trevor Hash; and three great-granddaughters Kyrie Miskell, and Lexi and Rylie Rand.

A service and joint Celebration of Life is scheduled for what would have been their 77-wedding anniversary, June 18, 2025, at The First United Methodist Church in Fort Collins. Their ashes will be placed into their joint vault at the church's columbarium following the service.

Celebration of Life Story

Ruby was born on a farm near Minco, Oklahoma on July 3, 1923, as the 8th child of nine. In 1928, her family moved to a farm near Tuttle Oklahoma. She would often tell her children of walking three miles to school each morning, and then 3 miles back in the afternoon. This, along with the hard work learned from working on the farm, would follow her for the rest of her life.

"An interesting story she told was when the screen door got a hole in it she decided she could fix it. She carefully interwove bits of material across the hole, repairing the door. I believe this was what led to one of her many craft projects and hobbies, her enjoyment of repairing and redoing the caning of old chairs" Daughter Patricia

"When asked about one of her earliest memories growing up, she told me about a church picnic in Tuttle where the entire congregation went out of town to a wooded area. A large treehouse had been built for the town's children to play in. She remembered climbing up into the tree with all the other children and all the delicious food that everyone had brought to eat" Son David

After graduating high school in a class of forty, she went to work at a department store in Oklahoma City during WWII.

Harold was born on April 11, 1925, in Woodston, Kansas; the youngest of three children (brother Paul and sister Ethel). He spent his whole early life in Woodston, learning the strong work ethic that would follow him, like Ruby, for the rest of his life.

He quickly developed a reputation around his small town as a hard, trustworthy worker, holding down a wide variety of jobs. He would fill in at the local service station so the owner could go home for lunch. He helped stack groceries at the local store. He moved the townspeople's cows out of town in the morning to pasture, and then brought them back in the evening, He took over the paper route from his brother Paul when he joined the Navy. He worked in the Woodston Bank during his last three years of High School and also ran errands for shops and folks in town. His job in the bank was where he developed a hobby of coin collecting that he passed on to his son Warren later in life. His most interesting job might have been as a "skate boy" at the roller rink, built above the grocery store. He would use a skate key to tighten up the metal skates they attached to the bottom of the skater's hard-soled shoes. He then would help teach people to skate.

"I still remember the time my Dad joined us on a Methodist youth outing to a skating rink. I knew nothing at the time about his skating background. When he put on some old skates he owned and went out onto the floor, I really thought he was going to kill himself. To my utter disbelief he took off across the floor and then proceeded to turn around and start skating backwards, zig-zagging back and forth. I honestly think my jaw bounced off the floor in amazement" Son David

He loved to play horseshoes and croquet with the adults in town; and was one of the only youths accepted into their circle. He maintained a close relationship with his classmates, staying in touch with many of them throughout his life.

"He would often tell of how he and his brother gave sled rides around town in the winter when there was enough snow on the ground. The youth would gather around a pot-bellied stove in one of the local stores to stay warm while they took turns climbing onto the hood of an old car my Dad and his brother Paul had secured behind Paul's old truck. They then pulled the makeshift sled through the town to the delight of the kids and laughter of the adults"
Son Warren

Harold managed to play on the basketball and football teams and even acted in several plays in High School. He was named valedictorian of his senior class, but with only 12, he didn't consider it much of an honor.

As products of the depression and the "dust bowl" region, both he and Ruby would tell stories of the sky thickening and growing dark from the clouds of dust moving in. Harold would tell of being in a one-room schoolhouse, which had no electricity. When his teacher would see a dust storm approaching, she would often have to send the children home early for their safety.

"My Mom once told me of the trouble she and her family had in cleaning up the house after the dust found its way into all the "nooks and crannies" of the house after many of these storms" Daughter Patricia

"Another depression story my Dad told us was when his father got laid off from managing the local grain elevator and they needed money. He and his father would travel and help load crops onto freight cars. At night they laid down their bedrolls and slept on the train platforms"
Son David

It was shortly after graduating High School in 1943 that Harold was drafted into the Navy. After completing boot camp at Cour d'Alene, Idaho, he entered the Navy's Aviation Radio Technician's Program at Texas A & M. It was while attending school there that he was fortunate enough to be accepted into the Navy's V-12 Officers Training Program and started school at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, majoring in Electrical Engineering.

The war ended in his junior year, and so did his continuation in the Officers Training program. Before he was allowed to be discharged from the Navy, he was sent to an air base near New Orleans to finish his enlistment requirement. He spent the time there packing grease around surplus aviation parts and putting them into crates for storage. The one highlight he remembered fondly was attending Mardi Gras with some of his fellow servicemen. He was allowed to return to Oklahoma in May of 1946, where he was officially discharged from the Navy.

Prior to re-enrolling at OU in Electrical Engineering, on the GI Bill, he took the summer and traveled to a 6-week Lisle Fellowship service retreat near Cornell University in NY. The interracial, international, and inter-faith camp consisted of 3 days at the camp and 3 days working and getting acquainted with the community and its people. After the camp finished, he traveled to New York City for a few days, sightseeing and staying with a few other Lisle attendees. After which, he hitchhiked back across the country to Oklahoma.

"My Dad would often talk of the immense enjoyment he had of his Lisle Fellowship experience. He also talked of the many rides he got traveling back to Oklahoma. Many of the drivers would trust him with taking over the wheel while they rested or slept" Son David

In 1946 Ruby enrolled at the University of Oklahoma in Norman majoring in Home Economics. It was while she attended OU that she started going to the Wesley Foundation where she was elected as food chairperson in charge of Sunday evening meals.

Harold started attending the Wesley Foundation for both the spiritual and social aspect. It also helped him pay the bills when he accepted a job there doing janitorial work for the church with three of his friends. It was at the Wesley Foundation dinners that he had the opportunity to taste Ruby's cooking, which led him to ask Ruby out, and then start dating her.

Harold went on to graduate in 1947 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. Since engineering jobs were hard to find in 1947, Harold went to work at the University Radio Station as an engineer/ DJ for three years.

"My Dad would tell me stories of how he had to make sure he put on a long record when he needed to go to the bathroom, and run quickly, to avoid the dreaded "dead air" every DJ fears" Son Warren

On June 18, 1948, Harold and Ruby got married at the McFarlin Memorial Methodist Church that they attended. It was shortly after they were married that Ruby realized she was more interested in being a homemaker, and mother, than being a career woman. So, she dropped out of school and took a job at a local furniture store to help support the family until Harold found more substantial work.

To save money, they shared a small 2-bedroom apartment with another recently married couple they knew from church. The couples took turns cooking and although everyone seemed to enjoy Ruby's meals, the other woman in the house wasn't as experienced at cooking as Ruby.

"My mother and father would often smile and tell of the many cooking disasters the other housewife would prepare when it was her turn to cook. Among the most memorable was a lumpy white gravy she would make with her chicken fried steak. For the rest of his life my father couldn't eat white gravy on chicken fried steak, or actually anything else for that matter" Daughter Patricia

In 1950 they moved to Wichita, Kansas when Harold went to work for Boeing Airplane Company. Their first child, daughter Patricia, was born in May 1951. Later in 1951, Harold obtained a government secret clearance and accepted a job with General Electric, moving the family to Syracuse NY, to work on military projects. Shortly after they moved to Syracuse, GE moved the family to Utica, NY in 1952. Their second child, a son, Warren, was born in March of 1953.

In1956 they then moved to San Diego, CA where their third child, son David, was born in February of 1958. Harold worked on the radio guidance system being built by GE for the first inter-continental ballistic missile airframe being built by General Dynamics.

In 1960, continuing to stay with GE, and his work on missile guidance systems, the family moved back to Syracuse. In 1965 the family moved again, when Harold accepted a job with GE in Houston, TX at their facility across from the Manned Spacecraft Center. His job would be working as a quality control engineer on the Apollo Lunar Lander project.

"It was an exciting time to be in Houston. In our sub-division of El Lago, a short drive from the Manned Space Craft Center, lived many astronauts. Among them were, Gus Grissom (the second US man in space), Ed White (the first man to walk in space, and who later tragically died along with Grissom and Roger Chaffee in the tragic Apollo One capsule fire), Fred Haise (of Apollo 13 fame), and arguably the most famous, Neil Armstrong (the first man to walk on the moon). Armstrong had a house right beside White, at the end of our block, only 6 houses away. I can still remember that time in July of 1969 when I rode my bike down the street to see all the camera crews crowded around Armstrong's house as he prepared to step foot on the moon" Son David

After the Lunar landing, GE's contract with NASA collapsed, and Harolds division was almost all let go, along with thousands of other engineers involved in the space program. After a very competitive job search, Harold managed to stay with GE by transferring to the Transportation Division in Erie, Pennsylvania as a Quality Control Engineer in their manufacturing and assembly of locomotives and mass transit vehicles.

It was in Erie that both Harold and Ruby introduced their sons to Golf. Harold had played ever since San Diego, when he went out occasionally with other associates from GE. In Erie he purchased a family membership to a lighted course a short drive out of town. He, Ruby, and both his sons would go out often as a family to golf on the weekends, or under the lights during the week. Patricia, unfortunately, was off at college in Pittsburgh during these outings.

Harold retired in 1985, after 34 years with GE, and then he and Ruby began to travel. Their daughter Patricia moved to Denver in 1971 after graduating with a degree as a dental assistant from University of Pittsburgh. Son Warren initially attended Penn State University but left in 1974 to attend school in Colorado. Son David graduated from Penn State in 1986 and headed out to Colorado shortly after that. Then in 1989 Harold and Ruby, longing to be closer to their family (their children, and several siblings) moved to Colorado. First to Loveland, while they searched for a home, then finally selecting a house in Fort Collins.

Over the course of their lives, they both were heavily involved with a Methodist church in each community they lived in. Ruby with the women's organization of the church doing cooking, catering, helping organize and planning events, or sewing for the church and its members.

A couple of the bigger projects were making draperies for one and tablecloths and napkins for another. Ruby even found time to go to craft classes occasionally and would come home and teach Patricia how to make the most recent craft project she learned. She became involved with Cub Scouts in Syracuse and Houston. In Erie, PA, after her youngest son went off to college, she became bored and worked for 5 years at a Naturalizer Shoe store. When they moved to Ft. Collins, CO, she continued to be a part of a United Methodist Women's group, holding a variety of offices in the group, doing work in the kitchen, and selling grocery cards on Sunday to help the United Methodist Women raise money for various projects.

Harold also seemed to always be involved with the various churches where he lived. In Texas, he and another member of the church helped Patricia's youth group remodel a small building on the property of the church into a gathering place for the youth to use on Friday and Saturday nights. He was often seen helping to fix things around every church he belonged to, especially if they were electrical in nature. He also found himself helping on many occasions with presenting a lesson in the various Sunday School classes they attended.

In later years you would usually find Ruby in the kitchen cooking or baking something, reading the paper, or in her sewing room either making or mending something for someone. Harold spent much of his time involved in the Fort Collins Lions group in a variety of ways, primarily as the Bingo Manager (the club's primary source of income for charitable donations), for close to 30 years. He received at least 3 Melvin Jones awards from the Lions (one of the highest honors a club can bestow on its members), and a Lifetime Achievement award, the first in the club's history. Ruby also received an award for her assistance with the club. After retiring, his son David joined the Lions in 2021 and is currently trying to follow in his father's large footsteps. At home, Harold loved to sit and watch TV, especially older shows like Cheyenne, and his very favorite, Perry Mason, while Ruby enjoyed reading the newspaper, sewing, cooking, gardening, and for TV she enjoyed Wheel of Fortune with dinner, American Pickers, and various home improvement shows at other times.

Shortly after their move to Fort Collins Ruby, and Harold reluctantly (according to him, but we didn't believe him) began watching both Warren's and David's dogs when needed. Ruby especially enjoyed their company and would lavish attention on them. From 2011, until David's retirement in 2021, Ruby would watch David's dog that he dropped off for "doggie day care" every day on his way to work. Then when Warren and David would travel together, she watched both of their dogs… even breaking down and letting them sleep on her and Harold's bed; something that was unheard of with David's first dog, a beagle, in Erie. Scout was not even allowed upstairs at any time, let alone on someone's bed, and he had to sleep outside in the doghouse Harold made for him, or in the laundry room on very cold nights.

"Scout was a temperamental beagle and had a love for Kleenex that he would pull out of the garbage and not give up without a fight. Mom always broke down first and forgave Scout after one of these confrontations. One time after Scout had misbehaved and been yelled at, he slinked over to my Dad. Mom said to Dad "Look, he's trying to apologize. Pet him". Dad started to reach down to pet him, and Scout jumped up and bit him on the nose! Boy was my Dad mad, but even then, he didn't swear or strike out." Son David

"That's something I can honestly say about my parents. I never heard either of them swear or utter a raciest remark growing up. They didn't drink or smoke. They tried to live a Christian lifestyle and set an example for their children." Son David

After Warren's son Trevor was born, Ruby loved to babysit and watch him develop and grow.

Through a major portion of their life, they loved to play bridge, only giving it up in their later years. Ruby never gave up her love of board games, and several card games, that weren't as taxing as bridge. After receiving a laptop computer one Christmas it became her solitaire and spider card game machine for many years.

"One thing I really enjoyed with my mother was going to an antique store and hearing her talk about the many things we discovered there that she remembered from her early childhood or young adult life with Dad" Son David

Harold and Ruby used to love going out with fellow church members after Sunday service, and during the week they loved to have one of their sons pick up fast food and bring it back for dinner. A particular favorite was Wendy's where their standing order was two Wendy's singles, and Harold's favorite dessert, a chocolate Frosty. In the evening, when he couldn't have a frosty, he still managed to always have ice cream in a bowl or cone.

"My mother disliked several things later in life. One was Mexican food. She and my father had chaperoned a Methodist youth group missionary help trip to New Mexico. The youth wanted to eat the local Mexican cuisine at almost every meal. My Mom soon tired of it and she never managed to recover from her dislike. Along those lines was her dislike of fish. She used to enjoy it in Erie, but after having some fried trout (possibly past its expiration date) served by a cousin of Harolds that lived in Colorado. She avoided it for many years after. My Dad never seemed to develop the dislike for many foods like my mother, with the possible exception of white gravy, which they both never again seemed to tolerate" Son Warren

Over the course of their lives together they managed to travel all over Europe on several organized tours, from Ireland and the British Isles to Moscow. The Moscow trip was part of a 15-day Eastern European trip with their son David and Ruby's sister Oreatha. They flew into Germany, then traveled to the Czech Republic, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and back to Germany. Several years later they even went on their second cruise, a trip to Mexico, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman with their sons Warren & David. Their first cruise was an Alaskan cruise that took them from Seattle up through the inside passage to Anchorage, then by train to Denali National Park, and ending in Anchorage.

In their life together they traveled to all 50 states, from Niagara Falls to the Everglades. From the Grand Canyon to Yellowstone and the Giant Redwoods. They visited the wonders of Greece, London, Paris, the Eiffel Tower, the Kremlin, the Hermitage and Louve museums, royal palaces, and countless National Parks, to name just a few. They took their children to the 1964 World's Fair in New York City, Hemisphere 68 in San Antonio; Disneyland, Disneyworld, and Knox Berry Farm. They were even able to see one of the last space shuttle launches with their sons and grandson at the Kennedy Space Center. They led a fulfilling, well-traveled life together.

"Every summer when GE would have a scheduled shutdown for several weeks, or just using his annual leave, my father would pack all of us into the car and we set out to see the nation; planning our stops to visit family and friends along the way. I think all these vacation trips is why my brother, sister, and I have such a passion for history and travel to this day" Son Warren

"I especially remember the gadgets my father created to make our long road trips more enjoyable. He made a small speaker out of an old metal band-aid box that he wired to the cars sound system and stretched into the rear area of our station wagon. It was nice to listen to the music while we relaxed on all the pillows and sleeping bags piled up in the back, without having to blare the music from the front. He even made louvered screens to go over the side windows to help keep the heat out. But I especially remember fighting over the 3-inch flexible hose my Dad rigged up to one of the front air conditioner vents supplying cool air to the rear of our station wagon on some of the hot midwestern and western summer trips" Daughter Patricia

Harold and Ruby always stayed in touch with the friends they made over the years, especially via their annual Christmas letter, updating everyone about what they and their children had done since the previous letter. They managed to outlast most of their close friends and will be missed by those remaining ones.

"It's going to be very strange sending out their last Christmas Letter this year. That, along with the upcoming holidays, will be tough the first time each one passes. First Christmas without them, first Mother's Day and Father's Day, their birthdays, etc.…" Patricia, Warren, & David

We hope that many of you can join us June 18th for their Celebration of Life event at The First United Methodist Church in Fort Collins, 1005 Stover St, followed by their columbarium internment and a luncheon. We are planning for an 11:00 service start, but if that changes, we will post it here. Any questions can be directed to David Hartman at david701co@gmail.com

Please post any memories of our parents you have here on the website. We would love to hear your stories and remembrances.

Thank you
Patricia, Warren, David