Ruth Gwendolyn Lombard Lemley, 91, of Mobile died peacefully on Thursday, June 5, 2014 at Providence Hospital in the presence of her family, after a prolonged illness. She will be remembered for her devotion to her family and friends, her sense of humor, her kindness, her intellectual gifts, and her strong Christian faith. A native Mobilian, Ruth was born to the former Christine Tillman and Joseph Samuel Lombard at their home on Elmira Street. She attended the Woodcock School on Rickarby Street and graduated in 1939 from Murphy High School. She always excelled academically, and because of her superior record of scholarship graduated in the top 10 of her class of 550 and was a member of the National Honor Society. In addition, as a result of her intellectual competence and strong work ethic, Ruth was honored to serve as the school bookkeeper for Murphy. A self-described tomboy, she was a champion athlete. She loved a good game of softball and excelled at the Roman Rings. After high school, Ruth worked as a bookkeeper for Mobile Rug and Shade and then UJ Chevrolet while still a teenager. Later, she worked for the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. After taking time to raise a family, she became a realtor and a licensed real estate broker both in Alabama and Kentucky. In 1955, Ruth married the love of her life, Luther Henry Lemley, and in 1958 embarked upon a magnificent adventure when the young Lemley family left Mobile for Bomi Hills, Liberia, West Africa, where husband Luther served as General Manager for the Liberia Mining Company, in charge of the railroad that transported iron ore from the Bomi Hills mine to the Port of Monrovia, a distance of 40 miles, through the African bush. She loved everything about Africa, its people, its beauty and warmth, and the community of Bomi Hills itself, which contained mining professionals from all over the world. She made many lasting friendships and opened her home to the local missionary community, several of whom she remained in weekly contact until her final admission to the hospital. After leaving Africa, Ruth lived in a number of places, including Atlanta, Georgia, Lafayette, Indiana, and Louisville, Kentucky, moving back to Mobile in 1990. Although she was not able to complete her college education after high school because of work and family commitments, she embarked upon her higher education in 1977 at age 54, graduating with a Bachelor of Library Science (B.L.S.) degree from Spalding College in Louisville in just over two years, followed by the Master of Arts in Teaching (M.A.T.) from the University of Louisville with concentrations in Economic Geography and History, and the Master of Science in Library and Information Science (M.S.L.S.) from the University of Kentucky, in the process becoming certified both as a school librarian and grades 6-12 social science teacher. Again, she excelled academically, earning a final GPA close to 4.0/4.0 and completing the coursework for all 3 degrees in just 4 years. She was inducted into the Phi Alpha Theta National History Honor Society and made the Honor Roll with regularity. Ruth was a devout Christian. She attended both Presbyterian and Baptist churches in her youth, joining Zion Baptist Church in Mobile at age 17. For much of her adult life, she was affiliated with the Assemblies of God denomination and upon returning to Mobile in 1990 became a member of the Cottage Hill Presbyterian Church, although ill health prevented her from attending in recent years. Ruth was a world traveler: in addition to her time in Liberia, she also visited Dakar, Senegal, the Canary Islands, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Geneva, Rome, Madrid, and Lisbon. Closer to home, she toured much of Canada and the continental United States. She especially enjoyed photography, gardening and working outdoors. In her younger days, she was a competent accordionist and often played for church services when no organ or piano was available. (She opined that she should have studied the flute instead, since the accordion was so heavy and hard to transport.) She was imbued with a strong sense of civic duty and served the community as an official poll worker in Mobile and other places. In Louisville, she cooked and delivered food for Meals-on-Wheels and volunteered at a library in a poor, inner-city neighborhood. She actively solicited contributions to charities by going door-to-door, even on cold, wintry afternoons. She is preceded in death by her husband Luther Henry Lemley, her parents, Joseph and Christine Lombard, and her siblings Woodrow Lombard, Maurice Lombard, and Mildred L. Clolinger. She is survived by her children, 14 grandchildren, 4 great-grandchildren, her brother, her sister, and other relatives and many friends.

Published in the Mobile Register and Baldwin County from June 11 to June 15, 2014