Ruth Murray

Ruth J. Murray

Ruth (Jeanette) Murray, age 96, of Junction City, passed away Friday, August 30, 2013, at Geary Community Hospital. Ruth was born on September 25, 1916, in Burr Oak, Jewell County, Kansas to Goldie Mae Frost and Roy Menser Johnson.

Ruth grew up on the family farm near Esbon, Kansas, and graduated from Burr Oak High School in 1934. She was an athlete in high school lettering in track and placing first in the high jump.

She attended Kansas Wesleyan University in Salina but had to cut her college career short because of rheumatic fever.

After her recovery, she graduated from a cosmetology school in Salina and then moved to Herington, Kansas, where she was a beauty operator for the Scripter Beauty Shop. It was in Herington where she met a young farmer, Robert R. Murray, whom she married on December 21, 1941, at the First Methodist Church in Burr Oak.

When Bob Murray joined the US Army Air Forces in WWII, she moved with him to duty stations at Blythe, California and Luke Field in Phoenix.

After the War, Bob and Ruth returned to Kansas and the Murray Family farm in Dickinson County near Hope, Kansas.

In 1952, Bob and Ruth moved to Junction City where he was a salesman for Russell Motors, the Ford dealership Ruth worked in different capacities in the 1950s and 1960s first as an "Avon Lady" marketing Avon cosmetics, and then as a "Welcome Wagon Lady" making new residents feel welcome in Junction City.

She then began work for what is now Junction City Abstract and Title. Back then it was the Hoover Schermerhorn Law Firm, then it was purchased by the Harper-Hornbacker Law Firm, then the Robert Weary Law Firm, and finally becoming Junction City Abstract and Title. She worked in the abstracting business until she was 73.

At age 74, Ruth began work at the Junction City Walmart where she was employed for 22 years until her retirement in 2012.

At age 90, she was named Kansas Older Worker of the Year. Walmart nominated her for the award which was presented by the Kansas Department of Commerce at a ceremony in Topeka. Her colleagues at Walmart rented a limousine for the trip to Topeka.

Ruth was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Junction City since 1952 where she was very active in her Circle and United Methodist Women, and for a number of years she sang in the choir.

She was a political activist in the Geary County Republican Party serving as County Vice Chairman and President of the Geary County Republican Women. She served as the Geary County Campaign Chairman or Vice Chairman for numerous statewide candidates including Senator Bob Dole in his campaigns for the US Senate and for President of the United States. She and Bob Murray also served as the Geary County co-chairs for former State Senator Lana Oleen in her first run for the Senate.

Her favorite time of year was the opening weekend of pheasant and quail season in November. For many years it was tradition for family members and friends to congregate at the house for dinners on Friday and Saturday night—and for cleaning the birds.

Ruth Murray was preceded in death by her husband, Robert R. (Bob) Murray in 2002, her parents, Goldie Mae and Roy M. Johnson of Burr Oak, Kansas; two brothers, Arthur Johnson of Camarillo, California, Stanley Johnson of Central City, Nebraska; and one sister Jane Burnett of Wichita. She is survived by her son, Michael R. Murray of Topeka, his wife Julie, and her two grandsons, Michael Robert and Matthew William.