If Leo Berry were called upon to describe his wife, Ruth, he might tell you, “She was a Proverbs 31 woman.” It was in just that fashion that Leo and Ruth enjoyed more than seven decades together. Building a faith-centered post-war home, developing careers, investing themselves in their church, raising a son and a daughter, enjoying the coming of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, side-by-side through lives that extolled the sort of sound character described in God's Word.
Our mother Ruth Hannah Berry, who died March 30, 2020, after a years-long struggle with dementia, was a devoted teacher in the Jackson Public Schools. For twenty-five years – first at Peeples, then at Whitten Middle School -- she taught English and history to seventh and eighth graders. Her students were all of an age to be discovering the pleasures and perils of young adulthood. Mother took it for granted that she could serve them best by helping them learn more than the facts that came from books, as important as those facts were. As they grew, her students would also need a grounding in the kind of respect people owe one another, and they would learn that (if they learned it at all) only by example. Like all good teachers, Mother was the first to admit that sometimes she got her message across, sometimes not so much. Once early in her teaching career, Mother noticed that some of her students were marking multiple-choice tests at random, without reading the questions. She decided to give them an incentive to take the tests more seriously. She announced in class that one extra-credit question would appear on every exam all year until every student in the room got it right: “Who was the first President of the United States?” Sure enough, months later on the final exam poor George Washington was still being shouldered aside by more familiar luminaries (the Lone Ranger!). Mother despaired.
Mother’s vocation to teach came naturally. Her father, a farmer in Oktibbeha County, took an active interest in agricultural science and encouraged his six children to get the best education open to them. Mother, taking that to heart, graduated from Mississippi College in 1950. Standing beside her in the black-and-white photographs is her fellow-graduate Leo Berry, whom she had met as a freshman and married in 1947. He has never tired of telling how she turned him down when he first asked her for a date, and how he persevered with all the single-mindedness he had learned in the U.S. Navy. (You can easily picture Mother’s mixed alarm and amusement at this relentless young man.) It was a marriage that would last for seventy two years. When our parents retired, both of us were working overseas. Mom and Dad took our absence as an opportunity to explore as much of North America as their RV could get them to. They then capped the U.S and Canadian national parks with visits to the grandchildren in Ethiopia, Jerusalem and Portugal. After a few intense weeks on the road, Mother could always be counted on to wake up one morning, look out over whatever exotic landscape they had reached, and declare that it was about time to get back home. Our father, who never seemed surprised by this, dutifully broke out his maps and did a 180. And at home, they lived a quiet life of service to their church (Alta Woods Baptist and later Highland Colony Baptist) and their community. Mother had always been a gifted seamstress, and now, after retirement, she spent more and more of her time in various forms of needlecraft, often in the company of her much-loved sewing circle. Father remembers the many newborns welcomed into the light by Mother’s baby blankets.
Ruth Berry is survived by her husband V. Leo Berry of Ridgeland, her brother Erskine Hannah of Providence, Rhode Island, and her children Hannah Berry Gay (Paul) of Ridgeland, and Gregory Berry (Nouha) of Montreal, Canada, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. A private grave-side service will be held on April 3, 2020.
Our mother Ruth Hannah Berry, who died March 30, 2020, after a years-long struggle with dementia, was a devoted teacher in the Jackson Public Schools. For twenty-five years – first at Peeples, then at Whitten Middle School -- she taught English and history to seventh and eighth graders. Her students were all of an age to be discovering the pleasures and perils of young adulthood. Mother took it for granted that she could serve them best by helping them learn more than the facts that came from books, as important as those facts were. As they grew, her students would also need a grounding in the kind of respect people owe one another, and they would learn that (if they learned it at all) only by example. Like all good teachers, Mother was the first to admit that sometimes she got her message across, sometimes not so much. Once early in her teaching career, Mother noticed that some of her students were marking multiple-choice tests at random, without reading the questions. She decided to give them an incentive to take the tests more seriously. She announced in class that one extra-credit question would appear on every exam all year until every student in the room got it right: “Who was the first President of the United States?” Sure enough, months later on the final exam poor George Washington was still being shouldered aside by more familiar luminaries (the Lone Ranger!). Mother despaired.
Mother’s vocation to teach came naturally. Her father, a farmer in Oktibbeha County, took an active interest in agricultural science and encouraged his six children to get the best education open to them. Mother, taking that to heart, graduated from Mississippi College in 1950. Standing beside her in the black-and-white photographs is her fellow-graduate Leo Berry, whom she had met as a freshman and married in 1947. He has never tired of telling how she turned him down when he first asked her for a date, and how he persevered with all the single-mindedness he had learned in the U.S. Navy. (You can easily picture Mother’s mixed alarm and amusement at this relentless young man.) It was a marriage that would last for seventy two years. When our parents retired, both of us were working overseas. Mom and Dad took our absence as an opportunity to explore as much of North America as their RV could get them to. They then capped the U.S and Canadian national parks with visits to the grandchildren in Ethiopia, Jerusalem and Portugal. After a few intense weeks on the road, Mother could always be counted on to wake up one morning, look out over whatever exotic landscape they had reached, and declare that it was about time to get back home. Our father, who never seemed surprised by this, dutifully broke out his maps and did a 180. And at home, they lived a quiet life of service to their church (Alta Woods Baptist and later Highland Colony Baptist) and their community. Mother had always been a gifted seamstress, and now, after retirement, she spent more and more of her time in various forms of needlecraft, often in the company of her much-loved sewing circle. Father remembers the many newborns welcomed into the light by Mother’s baby blankets.
Ruth Berry is survived by her husband V. Leo Berry of Ridgeland, her brother Erskine Hannah of Providence, Rhode Island, and her children Hannah Berry Gay (Paul) of Ridgeland, and Gregory Berry (Nouha) of Montreal, Canada, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. A private grave-side service will be held on April 3, 2020.
If Leo Berry were called upon to describe his wife, Ruth, he might tell you, “She was a Proverbs 31 woman.” It was in just that fashion that Leo and Ruth enjoyed more than seven decades together. Building a faith-centered post-war home, developing careers, investing themselves in their church, raising a son and a daughter, enjoying the coming of grandchildren and great-grandchildren, side-by-side through lives that extolled the sort of sound character described in God's Word.
Our mother Ruth Hannah Berry, who died March 30, 2020, after a years-long struggle with dementia, was a devoted teacher in the Jackson Public Schools. For twenty-five years – first at Peeples, then at Whitten Middle School -- she taught English and history to seventh and eighth graders. Her students were all of an age to be discovering the pleasures and perils of young adulthood. Mother took it for granted that she could serve them best by helping them learn more than the facts that came from books, as important as those facts were. As they grew, her students would also need a grounding in the kind of respect people owe one another, and they would learn that (if they learned it at all) only by example. Like all good teachers, Mother was the first to admit that sometimes she got her message across, sometimes not so much. Once early in her teaching career, Mother noticed that some of her students were marking multiple-choice tests at random, without reading the questions. She decided to give them an incentive to take the tests more seriously. She announced in class that one extra-credit question would appear on every exam all year until every student in the room got it right: “Who was the first President of the United States?” Sure enough, months later on the final exam poor George Washington was still being shouldered aside by more familiar luminaries (the Lone Ranger!). Mother despaired.
Mother’s vocation to teach came naturally. Her father, a farmer in Oktibbeha County, took an active interest in agricultural science and encouraged his six children to get the best education open to them. Mother, taking that to heart, graduated from Mississippi College in 1950. Standing beside her in the black-and-white photographs is her fellow-graduate Leo Berry, whom she had met as a freshman and married in 1947. He has never tired of telling how she turned him down when he first asked her for a date, and how he persevered with all the single-mindedness he had learned in the U.S. Navy. (You can easily picture Mother’s mixed alarm and amusement at this relentless young man.) It was a marriage that would last for seventy two years. When our parents retired, both of us were working overseas. Mom and Dad took our absence as an opportunity to explore as much of North America as their RV could get them to. They then capped the U.S and Canadian national parks with visits to the grandchildren in Ethiopia, Jerusalem and Portugal. After a few intense weeks on the road, Mother could always be counted on to wake up one morning, look out over whatever exotic landscape they had reached, and declare that it was about time to get back home. Our father, who never seemed surprised by this, dutifully broke out his maps and did a 180. And at home, they lived a quiet life of service to their church (Alta Woods Baptist and later Highland Colony Baptist) and their community. Mother had always been a gifted seamstress, and now, after retirement, she spent more and more of her time in various forms of needlecraft, often in the company of her much-loved sewing circle. Father remembers the many newborns welcomed into the light by Mother’s baby blankets.
Ruth Berry is survived by her husband V. Leo Berry of Ridgeland, her brother Erskine Hannah of Providence, Rhode Island, and her children Hannah Berry Gay (Paul) of Ridgeland, and Gregory Berry (Nouha) of Montreal, Canada, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. A private grave-side service will be held on April 3, 2020.
Our mother Ruth Hannah Berry, who died March 30, 2020, after a years-long struggle with dementia, was a devoted teacher in the Jackson Public Schools. For twenty-five years – first at Peeples, then at Whitten Middle School -- she taught English and history to seventh and eighth graders. Her students were all of an age to be discovering the pleasures and perils of young adulthood. Mother took it for granted that she could serve them best by helping them learn more than the facts that came from books, as important as those facts were. As they grew, her students would also need a grounding in the kind of respect people owe one another, and they would learn that (if they learned it at all) only by example. Like all good teachers, Mother was the first to admit that sometimes she got her message across, sometimes not so much. Once early in her teaching career, Mother noticed that some of her students were marking multiple-choice tests at random, without reading the questions. She decided to give them an incentive to take the tests more seriously. She announced in class that one extra-credit question would appear on every exam all year until every student in the room got it right: “Who was the first President of the United States?” Sure enough, months later on the final exam poor George Washington was still being shouldered aside by more familiar luminaries (the Lone Ranger!). Mother despaired.
Mother’s vocation to teach came naturally. Her father, a farmer in Oktibbeha County, took an active interest in agricultural science and encouraged his six children to get the best education open to them. Mother, taking that to heart, graduated from Mississippi College in 1950. Standing beside her in the black-and-white photographs is her fellow-graduate Leo Berry, whom she had met as a freshman and married in 1947. He has never tired of telling how she turned him down when he first asked her for a date, and how he persevered with all the single-mindedness he had learned in the U.S. Navy. (You can easily picture Mother’s mixed alarm and amusement at this relentless young man.) It was a marriage that would last for seventy two years. When our parents retired, both of us were working overseas. Mom and Dad took our absence as an opportunity to explore as much of North America as their RV could get them to. They then capped the U.S and Canadian national parks with visits to the grandchildren in Ethiopia, Jerusalem and Portugal. After a few intense weeks on the road, Mother could always be counted on to wake up one morning, look out over whatever exotic landscape they had reached, and declare that it was about time to get back home. Our father, who never seemed surprised by this, dutifully broke out his maps and did a 180. And at home, they lived a quiet life of service to their church (Alta Woods Baptist and later Highland Colony Baptist) and their community. Mother had always been a gifted seamstress, and now, after retirement, she spent more and more of her time in various forms of needlecraft, often in the company of her much-loved sewing circle. Father remembers the many newborns welcomed into the light by Mother’s baby blankets.
Ruth Berry is survived by her husband V. Leo Berry of Ridgeland, her brother Erskine Hannah of Providence, Rhode Island, and her children Hannah Berry Gay (Paul) of Ridgeland, and Gregory Berry (Nouha) of Montreal, Canada, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. A private grave-side service will be held on April 3, 2020.
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