This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Rhodes, Wallace, Rickards, Rice, Recker, Hern Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/SRB.2ACE/11958 Message Board Post: PJ: 6/24/2004: Santa Barbara, Calif.: Ruth Wallace Rhodes, 97, died Tuesday July 20, 2004 in Santa Barbara. She was born on Aporil 17, 1907, in Roscoe, N.Y., the daughter of Henry Joshua and Emma Rickards Wallace. She earned a bachelor of science degree in home economics in 1928 from Cornell University and pursued further education at the universities of Colorado at Boulder, Albany, Buffalo, Miami and Syracuse. She was inducted into the national honary teacher's sorority, Delta Kappa Gamma. She was a history and home economics teacher in Bemus Point Center School, Jamestown High School and Southwestern Central School from 1931 until her retirement in 1962. She was a member of the Methodist Church of Bemus Point and a bridge player at the Women's Club in Santa Barbara. During the Depression, when jobs were scarce, especially for women, she taught new owners of White Sewing Machines living in Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and Erie counties how to use their machines. She was active in sewing costumes for the Jamestown Little Theater and various Southwestern school musicals. Ruth was first and foremost, a teacher. Truly a modern and educated woman for those early years, Ruth was someone to whom her students looked as a model of a professional woman. Inspired to travel, Ruth and her college roommate, with carefully saved money, traveled to the Middle East in 1930, climbed the Great Pyramid, and also saw King Tut's tomb and treasures before they were moved to the Cairo Museum. Ruth's love of travel took her all over the world with her husband, Ralph. Detailed journals of their experiences reflect her intense curiosity about history, current events, ancient cultures and people that continued throughout her life. She loved to recite poetry, had a wonderful sense of humor, and possessed a very practical and resilient personal philosophy that gave her strength and a healthy perspective about life. Surviving are her children: Douglas Rhodes of Yardley, Pa., and Sondra Rice of Santa Barbara, with whom she made her home; four grandchildren: David Rice of London, England, William Rice of Hartford, Conn., Erica Rhodes Recker of Atlanta and Jennifer Rhodes Hern of Washington, D. C.; and four great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband of 71 years, Ralph Rhodes, whom she married on June 19, 1933, and who died on June 2, 2004. She will be buried in Cottage, N.Y.