People

: Ruth (McQueen) Smith; She was born to Guy L. McQueen and Emma E. (Barker) McQueen in Missouri. Her father was a time keeper and clerk for a railroad in Texas, and later the owner of a paint store in Grand Junction, Colorado. Her mother was a homemaker. Ruth grew up in Texas and in Grand Junction. She attended one year of high school in Palestine, Texas and finished school at Grand Junction High School. While in high school she was in the Glee Club, was the treasurer of the Rhetorical Club, the literary editor of Orange and Black, participated in Operetta, was part of the Latin Club, and served as the Class Historian. She served on the Orange and Black at the same time as Dalton Trumbo, who later became an Oscar winning screenwriter. She graduated the same year as Isabella Cunningham. Both later became reporters for the Daily Sentinel newspaper. She began her career as a reporter in the 1920’s and worked through the 1940’s. She also was a “stringer” for United Press International. The 1930 Census shows Ruth living with her parents at 1559 North 7th Street. She married Alvin W. Smith in Manatee, Florida on March 17, 1945. He was an airline inspector for the Civil Aeronautics Administration. The 1950 US Census shows them living in Los Angeles with their two children. She died in Ventura, California, where she is buried. *Photograph from the 1923 Grand Junction High School yearbook.

: Ruth (Tucker) Smith; She volunteered at the Museums of Western Colorado and had a room dedicated to her at the Museum. She also volunteered for several other organizations, including The Gray Ladies (Red Cross), Korean War blood drives, St. Mary’s Hospital, music and theater-related organizations, and the Western Colorado Center for the Arts. She was in charge of Ladies Day for the 75th anniversary celebration of the City of Grand Junction.

: Ruth A. Larson; She was born on a farm in Illinois to Eliott and Annie Larson. She became an elementary school teacher who began her teaching career in the Fort Collins, Colorado area. She then settled in Grand Junction, Colorado where she first taught at Lincoln Orchard Mesa School and moved on to teach at several different schools in the area. She taught for a total of 39 years. She was also the principal at Tope Elementary School. She also served as the principal of the Washington School for a time, because classes from Tope were taught there due to overcrowding. Her parents owned and farmed the land on the corner of 12th and North Streets in Grand Junction, Colorado.

: Ruth Bereman (Zingg) Tilton; She was born to Ottway C. Zingg and Bernice Kina Mowry in Holyoke, Colorado. Her father was from a Swiss-American family. He was a history professor and a band director. Her mother was a teacher and principal from Iowa. She grew up in Holyoke and in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where she attended high school. After graduating from high school around 1918, she became a teacher. She taught in country schools outside of Holyoke. She met Forrest L. “Frosty” Tilton in Holyoke. She married him in Boulder in 1920 and settled with him in Palisade, Colorado in 1924. Frosty became a cashier at the Palisades National Bank, recently purchased by his brother Arch Tilton and George Bowman of Palisade. She and her husband were avid skiers and skied the Mesa Lakes Ski Run on the Grand Mesa. She also loved river rafting.

: Ruth Bryant; She was a New Yorker and business woman who married the artist Harold Bryant and helped his career. She had been a WAVE in the Navy and he was a World War I veteran. They met in a saloon in New York at midnight and began seeing each other. When he moved back to Colorado, she followed him. They eventually married. She was responsible for the sale of his paintings to a calendar company.

: Ruth Burdett (Fulwider) Bull; She was born in Colorado to Newton Fulwider, a stockman and liveryman, and Minerva Fulwider, a homemaker. She grew up in Denver, Colorado. The 1920 US Census shows her teaching music. After marrying Dr. Heman R. Bull in 1916, she moved to Grand Junction from Denver, Colorado. Along with other local music enthusiasts, she started a music club sometime after 1916 (most likely the Wednesday Music Club or the Fortnightly Music Club) and served as the club's first president. She was also a member of the Reviewer's Club.

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