Ruth Mae Wrench age 106, beloved resident of Osawatomie, Kansas passed from this life to be with the Lord Saturday, August 15, 2015 at the Life Care Center of Osawatomie.

Ruth was born December 23, 1908 in Weston, Missouri. She was the eldest of six children born to Samuel Benjamin and Carrie Amy (Hedge) Reed.

At the age of four Ruth moved with her family to Osawatomie from Atchison, Kansas. Her father was one of the construction workers here to lay the new brick on Main Street. With no houses available to the many workers she and her family lived in a tent alongside many others near where St. Philip Neri Church stands today. When available the family purchased a home at 925 Chestnut, where Ruth and her siblings all grew up. She attended school in Osawatomie and graduated from Osawatomie High School with the class of 1926.

Ruth always wanted to be a teacher and after graduation she attended Pittsburg State Teachers College in Pittsburg, Kansas for a year and a half, leaving school only to come home and help her mother with her younger brothers and sisters. Ruth later attended the Ursuline Academy in Paola, Kansas for nurses training and attended school in Topeka, Kansas through the Kaw Valley Convention teacher training program.

On February 20, 1930 Ruth married Willie Smith at the courthouse in Paola, Kansas the couple made their home in Osawatomie. Ruth worked at several different jobs during this time which also included cleaning train engines for Missouri Pacific Railroad during WWII. After sixteen years she and Willie ended their marriage and divorced in 1946.

About ten years later Ruth was attending a church convention in Fort Scott, Kansas where she meet James Vernon Wrench. The couple married on December 7, 1957 and made their home in Osawatomie, buying a house just down the street from her childhood home. Ruth resided in Osawatomie for 102 years most all on Chestnut Street.

Ruth secured a position at the Osawatomie State Hospital in the dietary department and was employed there for over ten years, retiring in 1975. She was a lifelong member of the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Osawatomie and member of the Eastern Star ADA Chapter #3. Ruth never had children of her own, however she had more children than one could ever imagine being a member of the Foster Grandparents Program for over thirty years. She was a very proud and dedicated Foster Grandparent, during those thirty odd years, hundreds of children (and many adults) knew her as “Grandma Ruth”.

Osawatomie has lost another limb from its “community tree” and many will certainly miss her smile and energetic zest for life, family, friends and faith.

Ruth was preceded in death by her parents, her husband of thirty years James, her siblings, Samuel Reed Jr., Bethel Smith, Robert Reed, Margaret Berry and one infant sister who died at birth.

She is survived by nieces and nephews: Benjamin Smith, Adrian Richards, Marietta Brockman, Howard Smith, Bethel Pickens and families all of WA, Blanche Gibson and family of Osawatomie, Joyce Strull and family of Olathe, KS and step son Morris Wrench and family of Fort Scott, KS along with numerous other family, friends, and her many foster grandchildren.

ALL SERVICES WILL BE HELD AT: EDDY-BIRCHARD FUNERAL HOME

VISITATION: 6-8 PM THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

SERVICE: 10:00 AM FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2015

BURIAL: OSAWATOMIE CEMETERY, OSAWATOMIE, KANSAS