Ruth Knight

Ruth J. Knight, resident of Ponca City and former resident of Ralston, Oklahoma, passed away Thursday morning, March 19, 2009 at the Ponca City Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. She was 85. Ruth was born April 19, 1923 in Geuda Springs, Kansas, the daughter of Robert James Prochaska and Lovina Catherine Wehr Prochaska. Her earliest education was received in the Pleasant View School near Ralston, later attending the Oklahoma School for the Blind in Muskogee, Oklahoma from 1932-1937. Ruth worked as a supervisor in a tent factory in Pawhuska, Oklahoma making carriers for the soldiers shovels in World War II. She then was employed in the apple orchards in Washington State. She was married to James Ernest Knight on August 7, 1948 in Wichita, Kansas. The couple had lived in Pittsburgh, Kansas prior to moving to Ralston in 1950 where she was a longtime member of the Ralston First Baptist Church. Mrs. Knight moved to Collinsville, Oklahoma in the early 1980s and to Ponca City in 2003. She loved playing bingo and was known to have very good luck at it. She also enjoyed all the activities of the nursing home and was very active in them. She is survived by her two daughters, Catherine Cathy Seward and husband, Miles, Ponca City, and Nellie Ruth Barnes and husband, Ray, Collinsville, Oklahoma; one sister, Margie Barrie, Arkansas City, Kansas; one brother, Sid Bartlett, of California; 11 grandchildren; 23 great grandchildren and 1 great- great grandson; many other nieces, nephews and cousins. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, James, on June 11, 1951; two sisters, Lillie Ruth Harris and Leona Bernadine Scott; two brothers, Ralph Hall Bartlett and Cecil Garrett Bartlett; one granddaughter, Carla Sue Seward; one grandson, Robert August Leu; one great grandson, Andrew Leigh Barnes; one great granddaughter, Elizabeth Catherine Seward. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Monday, March 23, 2009 at Grace Memorial Chapel with Hospice Chaplain Mike Sweetman presiding. Interment will be in the Ralston Riverside Cemetery, Ralston, Oklahoma. Casket bearers will be Richard Barnes, Tim Barnes, Aaron Barnes, Darren Seward, Jesse Barnes and James Seward. Memorial contributions may be made to Hospice of North Central Oklahoma, 1904 North Union, Suite 103, Ponca City, Oklahoma 74601.