The Rue family in the U.S.A.

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Fourth Century of Rues Nears An End

IX. Everett Nelson RUE, born 26 June 1878, Baxter Springs, Cherokee County, Kansas; married Stella Margaret RICE, 28 August 1901, Crestline, Crawford, Kansas; died 13 December 1936 at 1910 Moffett Avenue, Joplin, Jasper County, Missouri, where is also buried.

Everett was a lead-miner who fell ill as a result of his vocation while still in his youth. Most photographs show him on crutches, though there is one which shows him in his 20s, standing on the prairie with a riflle in his hand. His wife Stella was a licensed practical nurse and tended to Everett's needs during the period of his infirmity.

Stella is remembered by her descendants as an ardent Christian and advocate of the prohibition of alcohol. She was a member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, evidenced by the badge identifying her by name as a delegate to the 67th WTCU Missouri Convention in 1949 which is presently in the posession of her grandson, James A. RUE of Laguna Beach, California.

Prevalence of childhood lead
poisoning in a lead mining area
[Joplin, Missouri]
Journal of Environmental Health

Stella's family Bible is in my possession, together with a number of religious publications bearing her handwritten notes in the margins, including the dates that each of member of the immediate family was "baptized into Christ."

Family Bible of Stella Margarite Rice Rue of Joplin, MO (1937).

1. Arthur Harold RUE, born 4 June 1902 in Smithfield, Jasper County, Missouri; married Opal Avarilla Brooks 28 August 1901; died on 13 December 1973 in Westland, Wayne County, Michigan.

2. Leitha May RUE, born 5 September 1906 in Smithfield, Jasper County, Missouri; married Robert H. McKENNA on 23 November 1931, later divorced; married F. Wade BONDS on 15 November 1941. No issue.

3. Everett Gerald RUE, born 26 September 1916 in Joplin, Jasper County, Missouri; died 2 March 1913 in Joplin, Missouri. This child is buried in Fairview Cemetery, Joplin, according to Jasper Co. Cemeteries (Sec 30-31 Central-South Sts., Vol 9, Page 19, Tombstone Inscriptions), with a notation which reads: "Rue, E. Gerald - 1912-1913 - Son of Everett & Estella."

4. Robert Albert RUE, born 26 September 1916 in Joplin, Missouri; married 28 May 1939 to Janice BROOM in Pittsburgh, Crawford County, Kansas; died 1978 in California.

i. Marilyn Ann RUE, married Robert GRAY and divorced; married Robert Blaire JOHNSON and had:

ii. Kenneth Barry RUE.

a. Teresa Ann RUE.

b. Patrick Michael RUE.

c. Christopher Shane RUE.

X. Arthur Harold RUE, born 4 June 1902, Smithfield, Jasper County, Missouri; married Opal Avarilla BROOKS, 23 September 1927, Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri; died 9 December 1973, Westland, Wayne County, Michigan. His final driver's license (which was last seen in the possession of John D. Rue, in 1983) described Arthur as 71" tall, 220 lbs, with grey eyes. Arthur lost his hair as a young man as a result of an illness

Opal Avarilla BROOKS was born 26 September 1909 in Giles, Donley County, Texas. She died 12 March 1979 in Orange, Orange County, California, having spent most of her adulthood in Livonia, Wayne County, Michigan. Opal married William H. Crosby on 3 August 1926 (by providing a year of birth of 1908) in Tucumcari, Quay County, New Mexico; divorced 27 August 1927, though she never spoke of this marriage throughout most of her lifetime.

Arthur RUE had scarlet fever when he was eight, resulting in partial hearing loss (nerve damage). He studied at Phillips Seminary in Enid, Oklahoma, intending to be a Christian minister but changed his mind as his hearing continued to diminish. He reached total deafness by age 20. An additional factor contributing to Arthur's deafness was that at age 16 he was beaten by railroad security men who found him riding the rails. After leaving Phillips Seminary, he went to New York City and stayed with friends Oscar BEIBER and William HARRISON in a rooming house. He was fitted with an old- fashioned hearing aid, which were very large then and came in several parts. Stimulation of the nerves, by way of the aid, would have kept Arthur's hearing from being totally lost. But the aid was stolen and he did not have money to replace it. Depressed over the loss of his hearing aid, Arthur accepted a job on a ship which took him to Puerto Rico. What he did or how long he spent in Puerto Rico is unknown. In later years, Arthur's sister, Leitha RUE Bonds, told Robert RUE (No. 4 below) that Arthur had married while in Puerto Rico. When she realized that he knew nothing of this, she refused to discuss it further.

While traveling the country by rails, Arthur stayed briefly in the home of a minister friend in Tucumcari, New Mexico, by the family name of GRACE, where young Opal Avarilla BROOKS did housecleaning. In later years, Arthur recalled that he first saw Opal from the rear, standing in the kitchen washing dishes. Her most attractive feature at that time, Arthur told this writer as a child, was "her fanny."

The marital relationship between Arthur and Opal lasted 46 years, but was not without grief and strife. After the death of Jacqueline (below), the couple hitch-hiked to Cleveland. Arthur worked most of his adult life in automobile manufacturing plants in Cleveland and later Detroit, in addition to maintaining a part-time used and rare book business, first in a downtown storefront and then out of their home in Livonia. For much of his adult life, Arthur worked on an automobile assembly line for Ford Motor Co. and other Detroit manufacturers.

1) Jacqueline RUE, born 22 July 1928 in Tucumcari, Quay County, New Mexico. Died of crib-death 4 January 1929 in the same locality. After burying her in an unmarked grave, Opal and Arthur abandoned most of their earthly belongings and hitch-hiked to Ohio for a fresh start together. They later traveled to Boston together, for Arthur to receive training in the book-selling trade from Goodwill Industries.

2) William Arthur RUE, married Beverly Ann ROOT and had:

a) Karen Ann RUE.

b) Bill RUE.

c) Amy Lee RUE.

d) Doug RUE.

Sam + Mary Woldin, Arthur + Opal Rue, Bud + Ann Rue, Jack Plotz, Peggy Apgar

3) Clyde Bieber "Bud" RUE was born 2 August 1934 in Detroit, Wayne, Michigan. They met as undergraduates at Michigan State University. While serving in the Submarine Service of the U.S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. Trout from November 1954 to September 1958, he married Bernette Ann WOLDIN on 8 September 1956 in Bound Brook, Somerset, New Jersey. Bud completed completed his masters degree at Rutgers - The State University of New Jersey in 1963, spending his career to teach mathamatics, mostly at public secondary schools in New Jersey, retiring in 1989. In 1970, with a group of other educators, Bud and Ann helped organize an educational summer program for teenagers called Innisfree, after the poem by the same name by William Butler Yeats. Upon retirement, Bud and Ann moved from New Jersey to Innisfree, in Milanville, Pennsylvania, in 1989. Bud died with symptoms of an asthma attack on 24 October 1993 in Milanville, during a walk-a-thon which he had organized to support a number of local charities. A memorial service was held at the Milanville Methodist Church on October 30, filling the building to overflowing. A private interrment, attended only by family, was held the day after Yule, in a circle held around the ancient maple on the Innisfree hill. A marker etched in native bluestone reads, with a quotation from the frontispiece of Kurt Vonnegut's 1987 novel, Bluebeard:

Clyde B. Rue
'Bud'
Husband - Father - Friend
August 2, 1934 - October 24, 1993
'We are here to help each other
get through this thing, whatever it is.'

photo

In reviewing his papers, some poems appeared which Bud had written about 1971. One verse seemed to sum up the idealism of his best moments:

At this point I fear not,
And love everyone.
How long is the day
That begins at morn,
With a newness so strange
As love newly born?

Because of the circumstances of his crossing, in the midst of a charity walk which he had organized, local news coverage was extensive. Press accounts noted that Bud had founded Wayne County Habitat for Humanity, and had been instrumental in founding the Upper Delaware Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, local chapter of Amnesty International, had served on the board of directors of The River School (a parent-run Montessori elementary located at Innisfree), and had been president of Innisfree Corporation since its inception in 1970, among other charitable activies. Editorials in two local papers commented that Bud had "walked his last steps for social justice."

Bud and Ann's four children include:

a) Thomas Scott RUE, married Carmen Betsabe HERNANDEZ.
i) Janesa Eugenia.

ii) Carolina Petrona RUE and her twin brother:

iii) Eddie Carlos RUE.

b) David Lawrence RUE, married Kathleen O'LEARY.

i) David Lawrence RUE Jr.

c) John Douglas RUE, married Nina Joan Asrican.

d) Ella Marie RUE, married Robert Todd EYET.

i) Justin Robert EYET.

ii) Kaitlyn Ann EYET.

4) Robert Nelson RUE, married Luane Joyce LANGE and divorced.

a) Lisa Renee RUE.

b) Melinda Denise RUE.

i) Derek Michael BATES.

ii) Carter William BATES.

c) Randall Gordon RUE.

d) Krista Marie RUE, married (1) Timothy Jay BENTLEY; and married (2) Mark Mingo.

Subsequently married Donna COLBAUGH, and divorced. Married Connie Gail SNOWDEN with two children:

a) George Alan Snowden; and

b) Julie Anne SNOWDEN.

5) James Alphus RUE, who married Rosalind RUDA and had children:

a) Justin Arthur RUE; and

b) Robin Rose RUE.

James also married Grace Elizabeth JASMINE and divorced after one child:

c) Summer Jasmine RUE.

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