Ruth Mae (Lang) Hays

Ruth Mae (Lang) Hays, 97, of Danville, Indiana, passed away peacefully the morning of May 2, 2024.  She was born in Charleston, Illinois, on January 1, 1927, to Claude and Ida (Glosser) Lang.  Ruth was the third of ten children.

Ruth grew up in Charleston, Illinois, with her formative years shaped by the Great Depression, and worked as a telephone switchboard operator, manually connecting telephone calls at the local telephone company, while she was a high school student.  She moved to Mattoon, Illinois, after graduation from Charleston High School, where she took a job with the Singer Sewing Machine company where she leveraged her expert seamstress skills while actively demonstrating the quality of various sewing machine models to customers.  In 1956, she moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, and then to Avon, Indiana, and finally settling in Danville, Indiana, where her career blossomed as an office administrator supporting top management with the Naval Avionics Center Indianapolis (NACI), which focused on avionics research and development for all military services, as well as for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  While working with NACI and the FAA, Ruth developed, built, and fostered many positive relationships with her supervisors and colleagues enjoying social engagements outside of work that included a vacation to Hawaii, being a team member on a bowling league, as well as a golf league.  Many of her colleagues also lived in Danville and attended Northview Christian Church, where she was a member for many years.  In her later years, Ruth was a member of Plainfield Christian Church.

Ruth will be remembered for her love of the finer things in life, which included using what she could find in nature to fill her table, seeing beauty and potential in antiques that seemed ready to be “retired”, her zest for adventure in life, and her love of family.  Ruth eagerly anticipated the appearance of Morel Mushrooms in the spring each year, teaching her grandchildren at an early age where and how to find these exquisite and rare treats that now sell for over $80 per pound in select grocery stores!  She was an avid blueberry picker traveling to Michigan to the Copenhaver Blueberry Farm annually every summer at just the right time to pick up to 50 pounds of the most delicious and juicy blueberries to enjoy fresh and to freeze to last through until the next season. To Ruth, the Copenhavers were like family.  When September arrived each year, she would delight in walks in the woods to gather Pawpaws, or “Indiana Bananas”, with their delectable sweet custard texture and taste.  She faithfully gathered fallen persimmons from trees along US-36 on the west side of Avon annually and processed the persimmons into pulp to give to family and friends.  Persimmon pudding was a holiday staple in the Hays household thanks to Ruth’s efforts.  She loved spending time on the farm with her grandson, John, and his wife, Jenny, and their children Jordan, Jared, and Jessica, enjoying farm fresh garden produce and grass-fed beef.  She loved working on the farm or in the garden, as well.

Due to her upbringing during the Great Depression, Ruth knew the value of a dollar and the value of repurposing almost everything she had.  When visiting family in Charleston, Illinois, she would spend her time out at garage sales with her sister, Freda Lineberry, and her sister-in-law, Janet Lang.  She was a regular at Petree’s Auction House in Danville where she delighted in winning the top bid for solid maple furniture to use to fill her home.  There was a time when she even was ecstatic to receive, for free, from Mr. Petree, a sofa that was sitting outside that Ruth affectionately named “the Butterfly”.  This “Butterfly” was resident in her garage for many years until one day she engaged her artistic side along with a person skilled in upholstery toreupholster the “Butterfly” to bring it back to life.  To Ruth’s delight, after removing all of the soft materials on this piece of furniture, she saw that it had a solid walnut frame and was built in 1933.  Her “Butterfly” did “Sprout wings” as a lovely new creation and is now “living” in the state of Colorado with her granddaughter, Rebecca.  Ruth’s artistic side also manifested in a period in her life where she took art lessons, leveraging charcoal as her medium, achieving a ribbon for her portrait of a clown.

Ruth took many cross-country train trips with her son, Daniel, from Indianapolis to Seattle, starting in 1955, to visit family.  One of these trips in 1962, took Ruth and Daniel to Seattle to enjoy the Century 21 Exhibition, also known as the Seattle World’s Fair.  This was where Ruth fell in love with dining in the Space Needle that rotated so she could savor the 360-degree view of the city.  One of Ruth’s last trips to Seattle 20+ years after the Seattle World’s Fair, was by airplane and the Space Needle was on the top of her list for lunch.  She spent time traveling with her church group to New England where she enjoyed pure maple syrup on her pancakes, time in Oregon and Colorado visiting her granddaughter Rebecca and her great grandsons, while sharing adventures with Rebecca, her youngest grandson, Jubal, her great-granddaughter, Jessica, and her dear friend, Marilynn, that included a trip to Mount Saint Helens, in southern Washington, the Oregon Coast, a dinner train trip from Parkdale, Oregon, to Mount Hood, Oregon, and a riverboat dinner cruise on the Willamette River through downtown Portland, Oregon, where she was able to not only enjoy a fine meal, but also meet the captain and spend time behind the ship’s wheel steering the boat down the river, unbeknownst to the other guests on board.

One of Ruth’s passions in life after her retirement from the FAA was taking care of her great-grandchildren to ensure that they all had a healthy and nurtured start to life.  She began this focus when her great-granddaughter, Jordan, was three years old.  This continued on as she cared for all three of John and Jenny’s children while John and Jenny were working on the farm.  Following this, Ruth spent time in both Oregon and Colorado in the home of Rebecca caring for Rebecca’s sons, James and Simon, from the time the boys were three months old to up to one year old.  She was able to witness James’s first steps just prior to his first birthday and took credit for “teaching James to walk”.  This experience led her to her final role of being a trusted caregiver for the children of Rachael Neier Phillips where Rachael’s children affectionately called her “Grandma”.

Though her family is grateful that Ruth has “Sprouted wings” to go to be with her Savior, she is and will be missed.  Her memory will be kept alive with all that she taught us and how she loved us.

Ruth is survived by her son, Daniel (Judy) of Effingham, IL, her grandson John (Jenny) of Bainbridge, Indiana, her granddaughter Rebecca of Golden, Colorado, her grandson Jubal of Seattle, Washington, her great grandchildren, Jordan, Jared, Jessica (Josh) of Bainbridge, Indiana, James and Simon of Golden, Colorado, and her great-great grandchildren Neal and Zeke the children of Jessica and Josh, as well as her sister, Freda Lineberry, of Charleston, Illinois.  Ruth is preceded in death by her parents, Claude and Ida Lang, and her siblings, Mary Shaub, Everett Lang, William (Bill) Lang, Agnes Lang, Opal Swart, Bertha Ellen Lang, Leslie Lang, and Conni Poulter.

The family will receive friends on Wednesday, May 8, 2024, at the Helton & Harris Funeral Home, Danville, from 1-2pm.  A Funeral Service will be held immediately following at 2:00pm.  Burial will be at the New Maysville Community Church Cemetery at 6817 E Country Road 900 N, Roachdale, IN, 46172.