Ruby Lee Morris, age 88, of Springdale, Ark., passed away peacefully in her home on July 13, 2024. She was born Oct. 19, 1936, near Mineral Springs, Ark., in Howard County, the daughter of Joseph Arlie and Ethel Shirley Blackwood. She was one of the founding members of Trinity United Methodist Church and served their ministries in several capacities. She is preceded in death by her parents, and by her husband of 58 years, Dr. Justin Roy Morris; one grandson, Christopher Eugene Townsend; three brothers, William Blackwood, Joseph Arlie Blackwood, Jr., and Reeder Jones; and four sisters, Marie Burkhart, Mattie Dowling, Oleta Cornish, and Edith Harper.
Survivors include: a son, Michael Justin Morris, Springdale, Ark.; a daughter, Linda Lee Ramage, Springdale, Ark.; three grandsons, Andrew Morris Gibbs, Springdale, Ark., Page Patrick Brawley, Conway, Ark., and Daniel Curtis Wagner of Huntsville, Ark.; two granddaughters, Katie Beth Burton, Springdale, Ark., and Patricia Ann Wagner, Huntsville, Ark.; four great-grandsons, Taylor James Noyes, Siloam Springs, Ark., William Christopher Noyes, Fayetteville, Ark., Keagan Daniel Wagner, Huntsville, Ark., and Greyson Scott Burton-Gibbs, of Springdale, Ark.; and three great-granddaughters, Christen Elizabeth Gibbs, Isabella Zoe Gibbs, both of Springdale, Ark., and Makayla Jaide Elizabeth Wagner, Huntsville, Ark.
Mrs. Morris was a 1955 graduate of Nashville High School in Arkansas. Nearly 30 years later, she went back to school as a non-traditional college student, wife and mother of two where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in teaching from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She went on to enjoy a remarkable career teaching sixth grade in Elkins, Ark., Elementary. She had such a positive impact on the lives of her students that many of them kept in touch well into adulthood, and one of them became one of her closest friends. Her unique laugh was her most recognizable trait and immediately filled your heart with joy.
There will be a memorial service at Nelson Berna Funeral Home in Fayetteville on Friday, July 26, 2024, at 11 a.m. A private graveside service will be held on Friday, August 2, 2024, at 5 p.m. in Howard County, at the County Line Cemetery near Nashville, Ark.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to Ruby’s favorite charity, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. To give online, go to: https://www.stjude.org
