Ruth Dean Weaver Hylemon Jones
Ruth Dean Weaver Hylemon Jones, daughter of the late Ray and Esther Weaver, was born on April 10, 1926, in Wyandotte, Oklahoma, and departed this life on August 10, 2020, in Springfield, Mo., at the age of 94.
Ruth was raised in Wyandotte, Okla., and was the granddaughter of the last surviving full blood Wyandotte Native American. She attended church with her grandmother growing up and was saved at an early age at the Wyandotte Methodist Church.
She graduated early from high school at the age of 16 and attended Haskell Indian College in Kansas, where she received a business degree.
She went to work for the Indian Agency in Miami, Okla., and was recruited during the war for the Manhattan Project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It was there she met her first husband, Horace Hylemon. While working the next three years at Oak Ridge, they rode Harley Davidson motorcycles. From this union, two daughters were born, Shirley and Nancy.
Ruth was a stay at home mom until the early ’60s and went back to work as a bookkeeper. In the early 1980s, she opened a western wear store in Springfield, Mo.
In 1986, she married Albert Jones, and they traveled in their motorhome throughout the United States and enjoyed taking her three grandsons on fishing and camping trips. She was an expert seamstress, gardener and cook. She won Yard of the Month from the local garden club. Her family loved the holidays because she always made Shirley her seven layer Dobosh torte cake. She was a huge Cardinals fan, all the way back to when she listened to them on the radio with her dad. In 2011, when the Cardinals made it to the World Series, she surprised the grandsons with a ticket to a World Series game. During her latter years, she enjoyed going to the casino in Wyandotte.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Albert Jones; one brother, Ted Weaver; and her parents, Ray and Esther Weaver.
She is survived by two daughters: Shirley and husband, Ed, of Louisburg, Mo., Nancy and husband, Jon, of Buffalo, Mo.; one stepson, John Hylemon and wife, Peggy, of DeMotte, Indiana; her grandchildren: Jacob and wife, Melissa Ford, Josh and wife, Kyra Ford, and Ian Packard, Tara Hylemon, Cris Hylemon, Don Hylemon, and Susan and husband, Tim Halliar; five great-grandchildren: Taylor Ford, Skye Ford, Jessie Ford, Lexi Jack and Levi Boyd; one brother, Glen and wife, Verna Weaver.
Graveside services were held August 14, 2020, at the Wyandotte Nation Cemetery with Chief Billy Friend officiating. Memorial contributions may be made to the Wyandotte Nation Cemetery and left with the funeral home in Buffalo, Mo.
