Explanation

The following notes were written by Opal Brooks Rue, in early 1975, as a Christmas present, shortly after the death of Arthur Harold Rue. At the same time, she wrote a brief account of her own life which is also available here. Information below which is contained inbrackets was added by Leitha Rue Bonds, Arthur's sister, in an interview a few years later. TSR

Arthur Harold Rue was born in Missouri on June 4, 1902. During his pre-teen years, [as a result of falling in the snow], he had scarlet fever and diptheria, both of which effected his hearing. His whole family was music origneted. He took voice lessons, sang in the choir in the church, and took violin lessons. By the time he was 12 he had lost a larger per cent of his hearing and fell often into dizziness.

He was sent to Enid, Oklahoma and graduated from high school and had a couple of years of college at Philips University. His professors thought highly of him and would have liked to have liked to have had him continue, but he was very disturbed at his hearing loss (which was getting worse all the time.)

He went to New York City and registered at Columbia University there, and got a job at Ever-Ready Battery. He went on a trip to Puerto Rico and contracted maleria which didn't hit him 'til he was back in New York. When he left the hospital, he had lost most of the hearing he had left. Through the hearing association, he had an examination done by a world-famous audiologist who told him he'd lost all of his heairng.

He left New York and started for California. He had been in New York about five years by then. He stopped in Tucumcari, New Mexico to visit a friend who was a minister there by the name of Grace who he had gone to school with in Enid. I was the baby-sitter, 16 years old at the time. We met on Valentine's Day in 1926 and were married in Kansas City, Missouri in 1927.




FAMILY WRITINGS