Ruth Ball

Ruth Louise (Nichols) Ball was born on September 7, 1919, in Easton, Massachusetts to Clarence and Hattie (Harlow) Nichols. She graduated from Oliver Ames High School with the class of 1938. Ruth studied music from Miss Marianna Lillie, and then she became active as a church organist and choir director. She spent many years teaching classical and sacred piano and organ music to hundreds of students for nearly fifty years. In 1945 she moved to Iowa and then to Kansas and in 1965 she moved to Council Bluffs Iowa. Her interest in ham radios is what brought Ruth and her husband Wayne "Doc" Ball together. They were married December 15, 1979, in Doc's house in the radio room. The couple made their home in Woodbine. Ruth became a resident of Rose Vista in 2008.

Ruth was a member of the First Christian Church and Women's Fellowship. She was also an active member of the Boyer Valley Amateur Radio Club.

Ruth died January 7, 2011, at Rose Vista Nursing Home in Woodbine, Iowa at the age of 91 years and four months.

Ruth was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Doc Ball on December 13, 1996; brother, Roger Nichols; and sister, Mabel Magnuson. She is survived by her daughter, Alice and her husband Jerry Norris of Longmont, Colorado; son, Alan Clark of Council Bluffs, Iowa; three granddaughters; six great grandchildren; sister, Priscilla Wheeler of Shinnston, West Virginia; three brothers, Paul Nichols of West Palm Beach, Florida, Earl Nichols of Carversville, Pennsylvania and Russell Nichols of Caldwell, New Jersey; sister-in-law, Inez McElwain of Denison, Iowa; and many other relatives and friends.