Obituary of Ruby Cheney

Ruby was born on Easter morning, April 8, 1909 in a cabin fifteen miles from Eads, Colorado. She attended a one-room schoolhouse while growing up. She married Ezra Craig Kerfoot on May 20, 1925. From that union, there were 6 children: Ernie, Russell, Juanita, Mae, Leroy and Yvonne. Ezra died unexpectedly in his 40’s. Later, Ruby married Claude Cyril Cheney on December 21, 1946. They had two children: Carolyn Cheryl and Cindy Lou. At times during their marriage, they lived in Lamar, Swink and Rye, CO but most of the time in Fort Collins, CO. Claude was a school teacher and Ruby was the homemaker. They enjoyed a rural, farm life with a few animals, chickens, and always a prolific garden. In fact, she won Grand Champion gardener at the county fair. Ruby enjoyed family life very much and there was always much laughter and teasing in the house. She always worked very hard to make holidays very special and memorable. She would be known to sneak peaks in her Christmas packages, so our wrapping became very creative. Another thing she loved was fishing. She would always try to catch the biggest one. She caught various things besides fish, including a near boat, a turtle, a near fisherman, and trees. If the fish was getting away, she would jump in after it. Claude and Ruby traveled every summer with the family and had visited every state in the US. She continued on her own and made it to several over-seas locations including the Holy Land. That was a very special trip to her. Ruby was very religious and was baptized in Lamar as a young adult. She attended church and made sure her children attended Sunday school and church. She always had high expectations of her children and wanted them to do their best. Ruby was quite an artist and painted oil pictures, free painted ceramics, crocheted, and sewed clothing for her children. Because of her outstanding age of 106, she has outlived all her siblings except her brother Clyde of Wiley, CO. She also outlived all her children except four: Cindy Ferree of Limon, CO; Carolyn Vickers of Wiggins, Co; Mae Fritzner of Travis City, Michigan and Yvonne Torrez of Loveland, CO. Ruby has many grandchildren and great-grandchildren across the United States. Ruby was preceded in death by her father: Leslie McKay Sanders, and her mother, Ivy May Sanders (Wedkind), both from Kentucky. For the last few years, Carla Cluster Care in Limon, Colorado has been Ruby’s home and many special people have helped her there.