From page 1 of the March 9, 1911 Skidmore, Missouri New Era newspaper:

"Ruth Parrish is dead. The word flew over our town Sunday morning as on wings of wind. Wherever it went and whoever it touched left sorrow, and the expressions of sympathy for the bereaved ones were many; for bright, happy and cheerful Ruth carried sunshine wherever she had gone. She always had a smile and a pleasant word for her friends, and her death comes to them, whom she so dearly loved, as a dark and dreary shadow.

Edith Ruth Parrish was born in Skidmore, Missouri, October 10, 1884, died in the St. Francis Hospital, Maryville, Missouri, March 5, 1911 at 7:10 a.m. aged 26 years, 4 months and 25 days.

The funeral services were held at the home of her parents Tuesday, march 7 at 10 o'clock a.m. conducted by Rev. C. H. Sauceman and assisted by Rev. W. H. Welton, after which the body was tenderly laid to rest in the Skidmore Masonic Cemetery.

She leaves to mourn their sad loss her devoted and aged parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. V. Parrish, six sisters, Mrs. H. K. Deffenbaugh, Hiawatha, Kansas; Mrs. C. W. Barrett, Mrs. George Manchester, Mary Parrish, Skidmore, Missouri; Mrs. H. C. Lyle, Poplar, Montana, and Mrs. A. A. Gill, Sheridan, Wyoming and one brother James I Parrish, Skidmore, Missouri, besides a host of dear friends and relatives who have known her from childhood.

For three years the young girl had been in declining health, yet so resolute, so determined, so full of life was she in all her ways that not even her nearest and dearest friends knew the gravity of her complaint. Finally the thread of life was so worn and she was so broken in constitution that she had to yield, and her physician called. It was found that a surgical operation was imperative and that only through the gravest chances and faintest of hopes, but to that hope, small though it was, they pinned their faith, and she was taken to the St. Francis hospital. Saturday afternoon the hospital physicians, assisted by her home physician, Dr. J. E. Pierpoint in presence of the good nurses, the sisters, performed the most delicate operation, but the dread disease and frail form and worn constitution of this delicate girl was so far gone that recovery was beyond hope. All the care and love that skilled physicians and anxious and loving friends could devise and apply for her comfort and assistance were brought to bear, but the fiat of Him who rules our incoming and outgoing had been issued and after a brief struggle, despite the prayers and entreaties of her good nurse and loving sisters and many friends, their appeals were overruled, and, as the beautiful Sunday morning of March 5 was kissed by the rising sun, the spirit of that dear girl took its flight to that home the Christian believes is the fulfillment of the life everlasting.

The sunshine of love could not warm her life nor the affection of parenthood beguile her from drooping. She died at 7:10 a.m. Just with the awakening of the life of a new day she went to sleep like a tired child. It was just as the birds carolled the coming of morning and just as the rosy fingers of the orb of day tinted the eastern sky with a sheen of glory. It was a most fitting time for a pure spirit to take its flight heavenward.

The funeral services were very touching and the songs most sweet and beautiful. The flowers which she had always loved were many and beautiful, but not more beautiful than the face that rested so peacefully by them. Beautiful in life, beautiful in death, but far more beautiful in the glorious resurrection morn. Flowers seem to be the best emblem we have to express our love, for we wreath them around the cradle, the marriage altar and the tomb. Thus would we leave her, and in memory keep her, as sweetly reposing among the beautiful and fragrant flowers."