Ruth was born to Myrtle (née Hiatt) and Echo Lambert, one of three children, as she had a brother and a sister. When Ruth was born, her father was a farmer. By the time she was in kindergarten, her father had begun a career with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. When the family first came to this area in 1932, he gave up life insurance sales and managed the R.J. Crow almond property, now called the Sloan Ranch on The Midway. Ruth recalled her father coming home one morning while they lived there with all his pockets stuffed with candy – a Golden Empire Candy Company truck had left its back doors open and spewed candy along The Midway. When Ruth was in college, her father bought the property where the Langerwerf dairy is now located on Durham-Dayton Hwy; they sold milk wholesale under the name of the MyEcho-Lambert Dairy. During the War, her father bought day-old calves and had them flown up from the Los Angeles area and they were bucket fed – sometimes as many as 40 little ones at a time.
When Ruth’s parents wanted to sign her up for 4-H, she was denied admittance to the club because she had not gone to school here all the time. So, Ruth’s parents became very active in 4-H and allowed anyone who wished to join their club. Ruth’s father was the originator of the 4-H Fun Night – still a profitable fund-raiser for clubs to this day. Ruth’s mother used to lead a sewing class at the Grange Hall and had so many youngsters, that sewing machines lined the walls of the hall – as many as 40 girls! Both Ruth’s brother and sister were 4-H All Stars.
Ruth graduated from Durham High and graduated with a teacher’s credential from Chico State College. In high school, Ruth had wanted to major in math, but the counselor (Hattie Morgue) told her it was not appropriate for girls to do that, so she went into elementary education with a minor in home economics. When she graduated from high school, the Chico American Legion presented her with a certificate and medal for being an “outstanding student”.
When asked how she met her husband, Ruth said her brother and Dwight’s sister had married one another and Ruth and Dwight stood up for them at their wedding; Dwight was home on leave from the service for the ceremony. By the time he got out of the service, Ruth had returned to Durham to teach and they started dating. They were married in 1947. Dwight and Ruth had known each other in school – Dwight was a year ahead of her. Ruth and Dwight had three children, Irene, Jim, and Bruce. While her children were in school, Ruth was a room mother and gave up her teaching position to be a full-time Mother.
Ruth taught second grade in Durham, after having taught in Feather Falls and Sacramento. Ruth was the first “local” (living in Durham and a graduate of Durham schools) teacher hired in many years; at one time there were four prominent Durham girls applying for teaching positions and the school could not decide among the four, so to eliminate the need to choose, they passed a ruling that they would only hire people who did not live here. However, during the war years, they got desperate enough for staff to break that ruling, and Prof England recruited Ruth personally. She fondly remembers a school play for which she made cow costumes (complete with udders). Joe and John Jugum wore these and walked across the stage on all fours with the “bags” wagging back and forth and the audience just roared. The two boys then had to stand still while Vernon Strong and Jerry Henson showed the audience how to milk a cow.
When her children were grown, Ruth returned to the classroom and worked as an aide in the elementary school for about 15 years, retiring in 1982.
As a 4-H leader, Ruth taught cooking classes. She had one group that was all boys and they cooked one thing every week in the beginner’s class. She recalls them having fun making “purple cows” – grape juice and vanilla ice cream. The Brinson children had 4-H projects including sheep, beef and chickens.
Ruth was also a “Little League Mom” – she attended many, many games and provided a lot of transportation service for not just her own children. Every year Dwight would have a pre-season picnic and all the kids playing on their team would get together with the parents and get to know one another and they would all sit together at the games as a “cheering section”. Each season, Dwight would ask before each game if the team wanted to play to win that game, or did they prefer every child have a chance to play – usually they chose the latter, but there were times when they really wanted to beat another team.
Dwight came up with the idea, but Ruth was the “owner and manager” of a small, after-school business called the “Zoom Room” where the kids could come for a hot dog or hamburger. It was located where the sewing studio is now on Durham-Dayton Hwy. It started out as a slot-car racing and pinball room, but there were also pool tables. Because some of the older women in the community thought this was a “den of iniquity”, the Brinsons bought gold felt covered tables instead of the standard green to decrease the appearance of “immorality.” This business lasted for about four years, and Ruth’s good friends, Marian Bennett and Ruth Cole McCollam, helped her.
Ruth was a Sunday school teacher at the adobe church, now called the Durham Community United Methodist Church, and remembers having Lance Smith, our FORUM editor in her class.
Ruth has been an active member of the American Legion Auxiliary for over 50 years. Ruth and Dwight were both charter members in Durham (Dwight with the American Legion), and Ruth believes she is the only living Auxiliary charter member. Dwight was on the original committee to plan and build the Memorial Hall. Ray Walters started the corned beef and cabbage feed many years ago and baked all the pies from scratch himself (they did not feed as many people back then as they do now); this yearly event is the major fund-raiser for the Legion and Auxiliary. For more than 30 years, Ruth organized the essay contest. Ruth still plays an active role in the selection process for Girls State delegates and works on the scholarship committee for the Auxiliary.
Starting in 1959, Ruth was a precinct worker, just giving that up a couple of years ago. She began when all the ballots were counted by hand and had wanted to stay until it was all computerized, but she didn’t quite make it. Ruth even ran a polling place out of her home for many years, and the American flag still flies proudly in her front yard. The flagpole was from the old elementary school on The Midway when it became the commercial center it is today. The American Legion moved the pole for Dwight.
In 1976, Ruth and Dwight were invited by George and Velma Brandt to attend a Good Sams meeting in Oroville with the idea of becoming members. At the meeting, the Oroville club voted to close its membership because they were getting too big. So, Ruth and Dwight decided to form a club for the Durham area and the national Good Sams Club sent out flyers inviting many people who had expressed interest in such a club to attend a meeting at the Durham Park. Ruth and Dwight had been told it would be impossible to have a club just for Durham because it was too small, but Ruth said enough people attended that meeting to get four new clubs started, not just for Durham, but for Paradise and Chico as well. Ruth recalled their club camping at Durham Park during smudge season so the ranchers would be close enough to go home and check on their orchards. The Durham Good Sams Club is still going strong, with 22 active and 5 associate members. When a member passes away, the Durham Good Sams Club plants a tree in his/her memory at the Durham Park.
Once a week, Ruth and friends work on ceramics in her garage “studio” and enjoy a luncheon outing. Ruth has lovely ceramic pieces in her home and gives many as gifts; one more recent project was to make a tic-tac-toe set, with little mice as playing pieces, to give to her niece to use with her clients - she works with handicapped (including deaf and blind) children.-written by Karen S. Read for the annual Durham Library Honors, April 19, 2007.
~~~
Chico Enterprise-Record, Tuesday, June 5, 2018, pg 6: Death Notices. Ruth A. Brinson, 97, of Durham, died Friday, June 1, 2018, in Chico. Arrangements are under the direction of Bidwell Chapel, 342-4291.
~~~
Ruth Anita Brinson passed away peacefully on June 1st at the age of 97 in Chico. Born in 1920 in Visalia, CA to Echo & Myrtle (Hiatt) Lambert, she spent almost her entire life in the Durham/Chico area, graduating from Durham High School in 1938 and Chico State College in 1942. She taught school in Feather Falls, Del Paso Heights and Durham.
Ruth married Dwight Brinson in 1947 and made their home in Durham. In addition to teaching, Ruth had a variety of occupations: census taker, rural route mail deliverer and she and Dwight owned and operated the “Zoom Room” in Durham. Dwight passed away in 1985. Ruth was also preceded in death by her parents, her brother Bob, son Bruce and daughter Irene. She is survived by her son Jim Brinson (Andy), granddaughter Amber Hayes (Travis), great-grandchildren Colt and Tempe Hayes, grandson Eddie Brinson (Jessica) and great-granddaughter Karlee Nichols. Ruth is also survived by her sister Shirley Simmons, her uncle Pete Lambert and numerous nieces and nephews.
Ruth was a charter member of the Durham American Legion Auxiliary. For many years she chaired the student essay contest and sold ALA Remembrance Red Poppies in front of the market. Ruth also was a long-time precinct officer, working countless long election days at the Durham polling place. She was a cub scout den mother, 4-H group leader, member of the Durham Grange and the NRA. Ruth was Durham’s “Woman of the Year” in 1997. She and Dwight enjoyed traveling with the Durham Good Sam’s and visiting Thousand Trail campsites throughout the western US. Ruth enjoyed making ceramics with her friends, noon water aerobics, watching the birds in her garden and reading books. She loved flowers and babies.
The family would like to thank May Quiambao and staff at Golden Sierra Care Home for the exceptional care they gave Ruth for the last several years. Services will be held 10:00 a.m. Friday, June 15 at Bidwell Chapel, 341 W. 3rd St. Chico. Following that, Ruth will be laid to rest next to Dwight in the Chico Cemetery. Reception to follow at the Jim Brinson Activity Center, 9441 Midway, Durham. Memorial contributions can be made to the Durham American Legion Auxiliary in care of Bidwell Chapel.
When Ruth’s parents wanted to sign her up for 4-H, she was denied admittance to the club because she had not gone to school here all the time. So, Ruth’s parents became very active in 4-H and allowed anyone who wished to join their club. Ruth’s father was the originator of the 4-H Fun Night – still a profitable fund-raiser for clubs to this day. Ruth’s mother used to lead a sewing class at the Grange Hall and had so many youngsters, that sewing machines lined the walls of the hall – as many as 40 girls! Both Ruth’s brother and sister were 4-H All Stars.
Ruth graduated from Durham High and graduated with a teacher’s credential from Chico State College. In high school, Ruth had wanted to major in math, but the counselor (Hattie Morgue) told her it was not appropriate for girls to do that, so she went into elementary education with a minor in home economics. When she graduated from high school, the Chico American Legion presented her with a certificate and medal for being an “outstanding student”.
When asked how she met her husband, Ruth said her brother and Dwight’s sister had married one another and Ruth and Dwight stood up for them at their wedding; Dwight was home on leave from the service for the ceremony. By the time he got out of the service, Ruth had returned to Durham to teach and they started dating. They were married in 1947. Dwight and Ruth had known each other in school – Dwight was a year ahead of her. Ruth and Dwight had three children, Irene, Jim, and Bruce. While her children were in school, Ruth was a room mother and gave up her teaching position to be a full-time Mother.
Ruth taught second grade in Durham, after having taught in Feather Falls and Sacramento. Ruth was the first “local” (living in Durham and a graduate of Durham schools) teacher hired in many years; at one time there were four prominent Durham girls applying for teaching positions and the school could not decide among the four, so to eliminate the need to choose, they passed a ruling that they would only hire people who did not live here. However, during the war years, they got desperate enough for staff to break that ruling, and Prof England recruited Ruth personally. She fondly remembers a school play for which she made cow costumes (complete with udders). Joe and John Jugum wore these and walked across the stage on all fours with the “bags” wagging back and forth and the audience just roared. The two boys then had to stand still while Vernon Strong and Jerry Henson showed the audience how to milk a cow.
When her children were grown, Ruth returned to the classroom and worked as an aide in the elementary school for about 15 years, retiring in 1982.
As a 4-H leader, Ruth taught cooking classes. She had one group that was all boys and they cooked one thing every week in the beginner’s class. She recalls them having fun making “purple cows” – grape juice and vanilla ice cream. The Brinson children had 4-H projects including sheep, beef and chickens.
Ruth was also a “Little League Mom” – she attended many, many games and provided a lot of transportation service for not just her own children. Every year Dwight would have a pre-season picnic and all the kids playing on their team would get together with the parents and get to know one another and they would all sit together at the games as a “cheering section”. Each season, Dwight would ask before each game if the team wanted to play to win that game, or did they prefer every child have a chance to play – usually they chose the latter, but there were times when they really wanted to beat another team.
Dwight came up with the idea, but Ruth was the “owner and manager” of a small, after-school business called the “Zoom Room” where the kids could come for a hot dog or hamburger. It was located where the sewing studio is now on Durham-Dayton Hwy. It started out as a slot-car racing and pinball room, but there were also pool tables. Because some of the older women in the community thought this was a “den of iniquity”, the Brinsons bought gold felt covered tables instead of the standard green to decrease the appearance of “immorality.” This business lasted for about four years, and Ruth’s good friends, Marian Bennett and Ruth Cole McCollam, helped her.
Ruth was a Sunday school teacher at the adobe church, now called the Durham Community United Methodist Church, and remembers having Lance Smith, our FORUM editor in her class.
Ruth has been an active member of the American Legion Auxiliary for over 50 years. Ruth and Dwight were both charter members in Durham (Dwight with the American Legion), and Ruth believes she is the only living Auxiliary charter member. Dwight was on the original committee to plan and build the Memorial Hall. Ray Walters started the corned beef and cabbage feed many years ago and baked all the pies from scratch himself (they did not feed as many people back then as they do now); this yearly event is the major fund-raiser for the Legion and Auxiliary. For more than 30 years, Ruth organized the essay contest. Ruth still plays an active role in the selection process for Girls State delegates and works on the scholarship committee for the Auxiliary.
Starting in 1959, Ruth was a precinct worker, just giving that up a couple of years ago. She began when all the ballots were counted by hand and had wanted to stay until it was all computerized, but she didn’t quite make it. Ruth even ran a polling place out of her home for many years, and the American flag still flies proudly in her front yard. The flagpole was from the old elementary school on The Midway when it became the commercial center it is today. The American Legion moved the pole for Dwight.
In 1976, Ruth and Dwight were invited by George and Velma Brandt to attend a Good Sams meeting in Oroville with the idea of becoming members. At the meeting, the Oroville club voted to close its membership because they were getting too big. So, Ruth and Dwight decided to form a club for the Durham area and the national Good Sams Club sent out flyers inviting many people who had expressed interest in such a club to attend a meeting at the Durham Park. Ruth and Dwight had been told it would be impossible to have a club just for Durham because it was too small, but Ruth said enough people attended that meeting to get four new clubs started, not just for Durham, but for Paradise and Chico as well. Ruth recalled their club camping at Durham Park during smudge season so the ranchers would be close enough to go home and check on their orchards. The Durham Good Sams Club is still going strong, with 22 active and 5 associate members. When a member passes away, the Durham Good Sams Club plants a tree in his/her memory at the Durham Park.
Once a week, Ruth and friends work on ceramics in her garage “studio” and enjoy a luncheon outing. Ruth has lovely ceramic pieces in her home and gives many as gifts; one more recent project was to make a tic-tac-toe set, with little mice as playing pieces, to give to her niece to use with her clients - she works with handicapped (including deaf and blind) children.-written by Karen S. Read for the annual Durham Library Honors, April 19, 2007.
~~~
Chico Enterprise-Record, Tuesday, June 5, 2018, pg 6: Death Notices. Ruth A. Brinson, 97, of Durham, died Friday, June 1, 2018, in Chico. Arrangements are under the direction of Bidwell Chapel, 342-4291.
~~~
Ruth Anita Brinson passed away peacefully on June 1st at the age of 97 in Chico. Born in 1920 in Visalia, CA to Echo & Myrtle (Hiatt) Lambert, she spent almost her entire life in the Durham/Chico area, graduating from Durham High School in 1938 and Chico State College in 1942. She taught school in Feather Falls, Del Paso Heights and Durham.
Ruth married Dwight Brinson in 1947 and made their home in Durham. In addition to teaching, Ruth had a variety of occupations: census taker, rural route mail deliverer and she and Dwight owned and operated the “Zoom Room” in Durham. Dwight passed away in 1985. Ruth was also preceded in death by her parents, her brother Bob, son Bruce and daughter Irene. She is survived by her son Jim Brinson (Andy), granddaughter Amber Hayes (Travis), great-grandchildren Colt and Tempe Hayes, grandson Eddie Brinson (Jessica) and great-granddaughter Karlee Nichols. Ruth is also survived by her sister Shirley Simmons, her uncle Pete Lambert and numerous nieces and nephews.
Ruth was a charter member of the Durham American Legion Auxiliary. For many years she chaired the student essay contest and sold ALA Remembrance Red Poppies in front of the market. Ruth also was a long-time precinct officer, working countless long election days at the Durham polling place. She was a cub scout den mother, 4-H group leader, member of the Durham Grange and the NRA. Ruth was Durham’s “Woman of the Year” in 1997. She and Dwight enjoyed traveling with the Durham Good Sam’s and visiting Thousand Trail campsites throughout the western US. Ruth enjoyed making ceramics with her friends, noon water aerobics, watching the birds in her garden and reading books. She loved flowers and babies.
The family would like to thank May Quiambao and staff at Golden Sierra Care Home for the exceptional care they gave Ruth for the last several years. Services will be held 10:00 a.m. Friday, June 15 at Bidwell Chapel, 341 W. 3rd St. Chico. Following that, Ruth will be laid to rest next to Dwight in the Chico Cemetery. Reception to follow at the Jim Brinson Activity Center, 9441 Midway, Durham. Memorial contributions can be made to the Durham American Legion Auxiliary in care of Bidwell Chapel.
Ruth was born to Myrtle (née Hiatt) and Echo Lambert, one of three children, as she had a brother and a sister. When Ruth was born, her father was a farmer. By the time she was in kindergarten, her father had begun a career with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. When the family first came to this area in 1932, he gave up life insurance sales and managed the R.J. Crow almond property, now called the Sloan Ranch on The Midway. Ruth recalled her father coming home one morning while they lived there with all his pockets stuffed with candy – a Golden Empire Candy Company truck had left its back doors open and spewed candy along The Midway. When Ruth was in college, her father bought the property where the Langerwerf dairy is now located on Durham-Dayton Hwy; they sold milk wholesale under the name of the MyEcho-Lambert Dairy. During the War, her father bought day-old calves and had them flown up from the Los Angeles area and they were bucket fed – sometimes as many as 40 little ones at a time.
When Ruth’s parents wanted to sign her up for 4-H, she was denied admittance to the club because she had not gone to school here all the time. So, Ruth’s parents became very active in 4-H and allowed anyone who wished to join their club. Ruth’s father was the originator of the 4-H Fun Night – still a profitable fund-raiser for clubs to this day. Ruth’s mother used to lead a sewing class at the Grange Hall and had so many youngsters, that sewing machines lined the walls of the hall – as many as 40 girls! Both Ruth’s brother and sister were 4-H All Stars.
Ruth graduated from Durham High and graduated with a teacher’s credential from Chico State College. In high school, Ruth had wanted to major in math, but the counselor (Hattie Morgue) told her it was not appropriate for girls to do that, so she went into elementary education with a minor in home economics. When she graduated from high school, the Chico American Legion presented her with a certificate and medal for being an “outstanding student”.
When asked how she met her husband, Ruth said her brother and Dwight’s sister had married one another and Ruth and Dwight stood up for them at their wedding; Dwight was home on leave from the service for the ceremony. By the time he got out of the service, Ruth had returned to Durham to teach and they started dating. They were married in 1947. Dwight and Ruth had known each other in school – Dwight was a year ahead of her. Ruth and Dwight had three children, Irene, Jim, and Bruce. While her children were in school, Ruth was a room mother and gave up her teaching position to be a full-time Mother.
Ruth taught second grade in Durham, after having taught in Feather Falls and Sacramento. Ruth was the first “local” (living in Durham and a graduate of Durham schools) teacher hired in many years; at one time there were four prominent Durham girls applying for teaching positions and the school could not decide among the four, so to eliminate the need to choose, they passed a ruling that they would only hire people who did not live here. However, during the war years, they got desperate enough for staff to break that ruling, and Prof England recruited Ruth personally. She fondly remembers a school play for which she made cow costumes (complete with udders). Joe and John Jugum wore these and walked across the stage on all fours with the “bags” wagging back and forth and the audience just roared. The two boys then had to stand still while Vernon Strong and Jerry Henson showed the audience how to milk a cow.
When her children were grown, Ruth returned to the classroom and worked as an aide in the elementary school for about 15 years, retiring in 1982.
As a 4-H leader, Ruth taught cooking classes. She had one group that was all boys and they cooked one thing every week in the beginner’s class. She recalls them having fun making “purple cows” – grape juice and vanilla ice cream. The Brinson children had 4-H projects including sheep, beef and chickens.
Ruth was also a “Little League Mom” – she attended many, many games and provided a lot of transportation service for not just her own children. Every year Dwight would have a pre-season picnic and all the kids playing on their team would get together with the parents and get to know one another and they would all sit together at the games as a “cheering section”. Each season, Dwight would ask before each game if the team wanted to play to win that game, or did they prefer every child have a chance to play – usually they chose the latter, but there were times when they really wanted to beat another team.
Dwight came up with the idea, but Ruth was the “owner and manager” of a small, after-school business called the “Zoom Room” where the kids could come for a hot dog or hamburger. It was located where the sewing studio is now on Durham-Dayton Hwy. It started out as a slot-car racing and pinball room, but there were also pool tables. Because some of the older women in the community thought this was a “den of iniquity”, the Brinsons bought gold felt covered tables instead of the standard green to decrease the appearance of “immorality.” This business lasted for about four years, and Ruth’s good friends, Marian Bennett and Ruth Cole McCollam, helped her.
Ruth was a Sunday school teacher at the adobe church, now called the Durham Community United Methodist Church, and remembers having Lance Smith, our FORUM editor in her class.
Ruth has been an active member of the American Legion Auxiliary for over 50 years. Ruth and Dwight were both charter members in Durham (Dwight with the American Legion), and Ruth believes she is the only living Auxiliary charter member. Dwight was on the original committee to plan and build the Memorial Hall. Ray Walters started the corned beef and cabbage feed many years ago and baked all the pies from scratch himself (they did not feed as many people back then as they do now); this yearly event is the major fund-raiser for the Legion and Auxiliary. For more than 30 years, Ruth organized the essay contest. Ruth still plays an active role in the selection process for Girls State delegates and works on the scholarship committee for the Auxiliary.
Starting in 1959, Ruth was a precinct worker, just giving that up a couple of years ago. She began when all the ballots were counted by hand and had wanted to stay until it was all computerized, but she didn’t quite make it. Ruth even ran a polling place out of her home for many years, and the American flag still flies proudly in her front yard. The flagpole was from the old elementary school on The Midway when it became the commercial center it is today. The American Legion moved the pole for Dwight.
In 1976, Ruth and Dwight were invited by George and Velma Brandt to attend a Good Sams meeting in Oroville with the idea of becoming members. At the meeting, the Oroville club voted to close its membership because they were getting too big. So, Ruth and Dwight decided to form a club for the Durham area and the national Good Sams Club sent out flyers inviting many people who had expressed interest in such a club to attend a meeting at the Durham Park. Ruth and Dwight had been told it would be impossible to have a club just for Durham because it was too small, but Ruth said enough people attended that meeting to get four new clubs started, not just for Durham, but for Paradise and Chico as well. Ruth recalled their club camping at Durham Park during smudge season so the ranchers would be close enough to go home and check on their orchards. The Durham Good Sams Club is still going strong, with 22 active and 5 associate members. When a member passes away, the Durham Good Sams Club plants a tree in his/her memory at the Durham Park.
Once a week, Ruth and friends work on ceramics in her garage “studio” and enjoy a luncheon outing. Ruth has lovely ceramic pieces in her home and gives many as gifts; one more recent project was to make a tic-tac-toe set, with little mice as playing pieces, to give to her niece to use with her clients - she works with handicapped (including deaf and blind) children.-written by Karen S. Read for the annual Durham Library Honors, April 19, 2007.
~~~
Chico Enterprise-Record, Tuesday, June 5, 2018, pg 6: Death Notices. Ruth A. Brinson, 97, of Durham, died Friday, June 1, 2018, in Chico. Arrangements are under the direction of Bidwell Chapel, 342-4291.
~~~
Ruth Anita Brinson passed away peacefully on June 1st at the age of 97 in Chico. Born in 1920 in Visalia, CA to Echo & Myrtle (Hiatt) Lambert, she spent almost her entire life in the Durham/Chico area, graduating from Durham High School in 1938 and Chico State College in 1942. She taught school in Feather Falls, Del Paso Heights and Durham.
Ruth married Dwight Brinson in 1947 and made their home in Durham. In addition to teaching, Ruth had a variety of occupations: census taker, rural route mail deliverer and she and Dwight owned and operated the “Zoom Room” in Durham. Dwight passed away in 1985. Ruth was also preceded in death by her parents, her brother Bob, son Bruce and daughter Irene. She is survived by her son Jim Brinson (Andy), granddaughter Amber Hayes (Travis), great-grandchildren Colt and Tempe Hayes, grandson Eddie Brinson (Jessica) and great-granddaughter Karlee Nichols. Ruth is also survived by her sister Shirley Simmons, her uncle Pete Lambert and numerous nieces and nephews.
Ruth was a charter member of the Durham American Legion Auxiliary. For many years she chaired the student essay contest and sold ALA Remembrance Red Poppies in front of the market. Ruth also was a long-time precinct officer, working countless long election days at the Durham polling place. She was a cub scout den mother, 4-H group leader, member of the Durham Grange and the NRA. Ruth was Durham’s “Woman of the Year” in 1997. She and Dwight enjoyed traveling with the Durham Good Sam’s and visiting Thousand Trail campsites throughout the western US. Ruth enjoyed making ceramics with her friends, noon water aerobics, watching the birds in her garden and reading books. She loved flowers and babies.
The family would like to thank May Quiambao and staff at Golden Sierra Care Home for the exceptional care they gave Ruth for the last several years. Services will be held 10:00 a.m. Friday, June 15 at Bidwell Chapel, 341 W. 3rd St. Chico. Following that, Ruth will be laid to rest next to Dwight in the Chico Cemetery. Reception to follow at the Jim Brinson Activity Center, 9441 Midway, Durham. Memorial contributions can be made to the Durham American Legion Auxiliary in care of Bidwell Chapel.
When Ruth’s parents wanted to sign her up for 4-H, she was denied admittance to the club because she had not gone to school here all the time. So, Ruth’s parents became very active in 4-H and allowed anyone who wished to join their club. Ruth’s father was the originator of the 4-H Fun Night – still a profitable fund-raiser for clubs to this day. Ruth’s mother used to lead a sewing class at the Grange Hall and had so many youngsters, that sewing machines lined the walls of the hall – as many as 40 girls! Both Ruth’s brother and sister were 4-H All Stars.
Ruth graduated from Durham High and graduated with a teacher’s credential from Chico State College. In high school, Ruth had wanted to major in math, but the counselor (Hattie Morgue) told her it was not appropriate for girls to do that, so she went into elementary education with a minor in home economics. When she graduated from high school, the Chico American Legion presented her with a certificate and medal for being an “outstanding student”.
When asked how she met her husband, Ruth said her brother and Dwight’s sister had married one another and Ruth and Dwight stood up for them at their wedding; Dwight was home on leave from the service for the ceremony. By the time he got out of the service, Ruth had returned to Durham to teach and they started dating. They were married in 1947. Dwight and Ruth had known each other in school – Dwight was a year ahead of her. Ruth and Dwight had three children, Irene, Jim, and Bruce. While her children were in school, Ruth was a room mother and gave up her teaching position to be a full-time Mother.
Ruth taught second grade in Durham, after having taught in Feather Falls and Sacramento. Ruth was the first “local” (living in Durham and a graduate of Durham schools) teacher hired in many years; at one time there were four prominent Durham girls applying for teaching positions and the school could not decide among the four, so to eliminate the need to choose, they passed a ruling that they would only hire people who did not live here. However, during the war years, they got desperate enough for staff to break that ruling, and Prof England recruited Ruth personally. She fondly remembers a school play for which she made cow costumes (complete with udders). Joe and John Jugum wore these and walked across the stage on all fours with the “bags” wagging back and forth and the audience just roared. The two boys then had to stand still while Vernon Strong and Jerry Henson showed the audience how to milk a cow.
When her children were grown, Ruth returned to the classroom and worked as an aide in the elementary school for about 15 years, retiring in 1982.
As a 4-H leader, Ruth taught cooking classes. She had one group that was all boys and they cooked one thing every week in the beginner’s class. She recalls them having fun making “purple cows” – grape juice and vanilla ice cream. The Brinson children had 4-H projects including sheep, beef and chickens.
Ruth was also a “Little League Mom” – she attended many, many games and provided a lot of transportation service for not just her own children. Every year Dwight would have a pre-season picnic and all the kids playing on their team would get together with the parents and get to know one another and they would all sit together at the games as a “cheering section”. Each season, Dwight would ask before each game if the team wanted to play to win that game, or did they prefer every child have a chance to play – usually they chose the latter, but there were times when they really wanted to beat another team.
Dwight came up with the idea, but Ruth was the “owner and manager” of a small, after-school business called the “Zoom Room” where the kids could come for a hot dog or hamburger. It was located where the sewing studio is now on Durham-Dayton Hwy. It started out as a slot-car racing and pinball room, but there were also pool tables. Because some of the older women in the community thought this was a “den of iniquity”, the Brinsons bought gold felt covered tables instead of the standard green to decrease the appearance of “immorality.” This business lasted for about four years, and Ruth’s good friends, Marian Bennett and Ruth Cole McCollam, helped her.
Ruth was a Sunday school teacher at the adobe church, now called the Durham Community United Methodist Church, and remembers having Lance Smith, our FORUM editor in her class.
Ruth has been an active member of the American Legion Auxiliary for over 50 years. Ruth and Dwight were both charter members in Durham (Dwight with the American Legion), and Ruth believes she is the only living Auxiliary charter member. Dwight was on the original committee to plan and build the Memorial Hall. Ray Walters started the corned beef and cabbage feed many years ago and baked all the pies from scratch himself (they did not feed as many people back then as they do now); this yearly event is the major fund-raiser for the Legion and Auxiliary. For more than 30 years, Ruth organized the essay contest. Ruth still plays an active role in the selection process for Girls State delegates and works on the scholarship committee for the Auxiliary.
Starting in 1959, Ruth was a precinct worker, just giving that up a couple of years ago. She began when all the ballots were counted by hand and had wanted to stay until it was all computerized, but she didn’t quite make it. Ruth even ran a polling place out of her home for many years, and the American flag still flies proudly in her front yard. The flagpole was from the old elementary school on The Midway when it became the commercial center it is today. The American Legion moved the pole for Dwight.
In 1976, Ruth and Dwight were invited by George and Velma Brandt to attend a Good Sams meeting in Oroville with the idea of becoming members. At the meeting, the Oroville club voted to close its membership because they were getting too big. So, Ruth and Dwight decided to form a club for the Durham area and the national Good Sams Club sent out flyers inviting many people who had expressed interest in such a club to attend a meeting at the Durham Park. Ruth and Dwight had been told it would be impossible to have a club just for Durham because it was too small, but Ruth said enough people attended that meeting to get four new clubs started, not just for Durham, but for Paradise and Chico as well. Ruth recalled their club camping at Durham Park during smudge season so the ranchers would be close enough to go home and check on their orchards. The Durham Good Sams Club is still going strong, with 22 active and 5 associate members. When a member passes away, the Durham Good Sams Club plants a tree in his/her memory at the Durham Park.
Once a week, Ruth and friends work on ceramics in her garage “studio” and enjoy a luncheon outing. Ruth has lovely ceramic pieces in her home and gives many as gifts; one more recent project was to make a tic-tac-toe set, with little mice as playing pieces, to give to her niece to use with her clients - she works with handicapped (including deaf and blind) children.-written by Karen S. Read for the annual Durham Library Honors, April 19, 2007.
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Chico Enterprise-Record, Tuesday, June 5, 2018, pg 6: Death Notices. Ruth A. Brinson, 97, of Durham, died Friday, June 1, 2018, in Chico. Arrangements are under the direction of Bidwell Chapel, 342-4291.
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Ruth Anita Brinson passed away peacefully on June 1st at the age of 97 in Chico. Born in 1920 in Visalia, CA to Echo & Myrtle (Hiatt) Lambert, she spent almost her entire life in the Durham/Chico area, graduating from Durham High School in 1938 and Chico State College in 1942. She taught school in Feather Falls, Del Paso Heights and Durham.
Ruth married Dwight Brinson in 1947 and made their home in Durham. In addition to teaching, Ruth had a variety of occupations: census taker, rural route mail deliverer and she and Dwight owned and operated the “Zoom Room” in Durham. Dwight passed away in 1985. Ruth was also preceded in death by her parents, her brother Bob, son Bruce and daughter Irene. She is survived by her son Jim Brinson (Andy), granddaughter Amber Hayes (Travis), great-grandchildren Colt and Tempe Hayes, grandson Eddie Brinson (Jessica) and great-granddaughter Karlee Nichols. Ruth is also survived by her sister Shirley Simmons, her uncle Pete Lambert and numerous nieces and nephews.
Ruth was a charter member of the Durham American Legion Auxiliary. For many years she chaired the student essay contest and sold ALA Remembrance Red Poppies in front of the market. Ruth also was a long-time precinct officer, working countless long election days at the Durham polling place. She was a cub scout den mother, 4-H group leader, member of the Durham Grange and the NRA. Ruth was Durham’s “Woman of the Year” in 1997. She and Dwight enjoyed traveling with the Durham Good Sam’s and visiting Thousand Trail campsites throughout the western US. Ruth enjoyed making ceramics with her friends, noon water aerobics, watching the birds in her garden and reading books. She loved flowers and babies.
The family would like to thank May Quiambao and staff at Golden Sierra Care Home for the exceptional care they gave Ruth for the last several years. Services will be held 10:00 a.m. Friday, June 15 at Bidwell Chapel, 341 W. 3rd St. Chico. Following that, Ruth will be laid to rest next to Dwight in the Chico Cemetery. Reception to follow at the Jim Brinson Activity Center, 9441 Midway, Durham. Memorial contributions can be made to the Durham American Legion Auxiliary in care of Bidwell Chapel.
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