Ruby Landon, 101

Ruby Elizabeth Sanders Landon, 101, of Mountain Home, passed away on Friday, July 31, 2009, at a local care center.

A Graveside Service will be held at 10 a.m., Thursday, Aug. 6, 2009, at Mountain View Cemetery. Arrangements are under the direction of Rost Funeral Home, McMurtrey Chapel.

Ruby was the second child born to Charles Albert and Sarah Gunnell Howell Sanders on July 15, 1908, in Rexburg, Idaho.

Ruby's early years were spent in Lima, Mont., where her parents homesteaded. In 1921, the family moved to Rexburg, Idaho, to live and she attended school there through her sophomore year in high school. The family moved to Hammer, Idaho, and she graduated from high school as a salutatorian on May 18, 1928. Ruby then moved to Idaho Falls and graduated from Palmer Business College working for an attorney and earning $30 a month; after five years her wages gradually increased to $90 a month.

Alice Landon was a high school friend of Ruby's and she introduced Ruby to her brother Albert (Ab). Ruby married Ab Landon on June 28, 1933, in the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and they homesteaded on a farm in Hammer. Their first child, Bert, was born on April 23, 1934. A second son, Lee Dell, was born Dec. 12, 1936, and a third child, a daughter named Lawana, was born on April 12, 1939.

Lee Dell preceded his mother in death on Aug. 9, 1943.

The family moved to the Lost River Valley in 1950, living first in Leslie and then to Arco. In 1951, Ruby started to work at the Idaho Nuclear Engineering Lab as a clerk-typist and continued to work there and live in Arco until her retirement on June 29, 1973. In 1973, she moved from Arco to Boise where she resided until moving to Mountain Home in 1990.

She was preceded in death by her daughter, Lawana, on Sept. 21, 1986, and her son, Bert, on Sept. 20, 2008.

Ruby celebrated her 101st on July 15, 2009, surrounded by her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, friends, residents and staff at Elmore Medical Center, Long Term Care Unit. Ruby was grateful for the staff at Cedar Crest and LTCU for their kindness and the care they provided to her these last years as her health declined. She called each of the facilities "home" and appreciated the caregivers that were like family to her.

Ruby is survived by two sisters, Pearl and Sarah, and one brother, Reese, a daughter in-law, Sheryl, and son in-law, Larry, 11 grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren and 2 great-great-grandchildren.