Ruby S. Johnson, age 96, of Isanti died May 6, 2012 at GracePointe Crossing Gables East in Cambridge. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 A.M. Thursday, May 10th at Strike Funeral Home – Isanti Chapel with Clell Bone officiating. A visitation will be held from 5 – 7 P.M. Wednesday, May 9th also at our Isanti chapel. Interment will be in Aetna Cemetery.
Ruby S. Johnson was born November 6, 1915 in Carmody, Dalbo Township, Isanti County, Minnesota to Swan and Bertha (Klatke) Anderson. She grew up and attended the Carmody School, District 52. She was valedictorian of her high school class when she graduated from Cambridge High School in 1934. The next year she took teachers training at Cambridge and began her teaching career the fall of 1935 at the Hawthorne School, District 48 in rural Isanti. Later Ruby taught at the Dalbo School, District 16, in rural Cambridge and the Day School, District 50, in rural Braham.
Following graduation with honors from St. Cloud Teachers College the fall of 1943 she taught at South St. Paul until 1950. After graduating with high distinction from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science degree in education the summer of 1950, she began teaching in the Minneapolis School System where she taught from 1950 1957. During her teaching years in South Saint Paul and Minneapolis she was active in the Minnesota Federation of Teachers and served as a delegate to the national convention twice.
On July 2, 1957 she married Ralph W. Johnson of Isanti and has made her home in that area until her health required her to move into Cambridge Health Care Center in 2008. From 1964 to 1971 she was back in education again serving as County Superintendent of Schools in Isanti County. Ruby continued over the years to have contact with former pupils whom she enjoyed so much. She and her husband Ralph were active in the Minnesota Farmers Union and in DFL politics for many years. Ruby enjoyed her flowers and all growing things. She loved books and was an avid reader all her life. She also enjoyed a number of wonderful trips, seeing much more of the world than she ever expected to see. Ruby was a collector of turtles, political buttons, miniature vases, postage stamps, clothing buttons and all old post cards from the early 1900’s.
Ruby is survived by daughter, Dr. Linda E. Strike and her husband, Wendell Strike, of Manhatten Beach, California; nieces and nephews, Warren and Beverly Gagner, Patricia Sykes, Glenn and Annabelle Johnson and Bernie Johnson; and by other relatives and friends. Besides her parents she was preceded in death by her husband Ralph in 1987, her brother, Eloi in 1951, and sister, Donna Faber in 2008.