TERRE HAUTE — Ruby Carter recalls her childhood Christmases as relying upon fair weather and the determination of the mailman.
Living 12 miles from the nearest village in the southwestern corner of North Dakota, Carter said, “Our Christmas depended on if the mailman could get there.”
Now approaching her 100th birthday, Carter keeps the Christmas spirit alive in her cheery apartment at Peddle Park, where she lives independently, and is surrounded by friends.
After enjoying a holiday gathering Friday, Carter welcomed visitors to talk about her long life, fond memories, church family, and her ever-present hope for the Indiana Pacers.
The youngest of seven children, Carter was born in 1910, the same year her small hometown of Regent was founded. Her mother Burr Lee and father George moved from the Riley area out to North Dakota in 1906 and filed on a homestead in the remote landscape about 115 miles west of Bismarck.
Her father did “freighting” with lumber and coal, she said, and he laid out the lumber for one of the local businesses. She and her four sisters and two brothers had a happy childhood, but a year after her father died, she and her mother moved back to Terre Haute. It was 1932, and Ruby was 22 years old.
“When we came back, it was right in the Depression,” she said. “I did domestic work where ever I could find work.”
She eventually found work at a garment factory, and later on she was employed at Hulman & Co. in the baking powder department.
“I loved factory work,” she said.
She later became an inspector for the Packard shirt factory at 13th and Plum during World War II, and then she went on to a long career as a nurse’s aide at Union Hospital.
“That may sound like I wasn’t responsible, to have so many jobs,” Carter said thoughtfully. “But it was over a long period of time.”
Carter, who never married, continued to live with her mother after they moved back to Vigo County, and she said that working at Union Hospital was her favorite employment. She retired from Union in 1975, and recently received a colorful poinsettia as the oldest retiree when she attended a holiday gathering at the newly expanded facility.
“I felt it was very meaningful,” she said of her work as a nurse’s aide. “After I retired, I went right back to Union volunteering.”
She continued to volunteer until 1998, when some icy weather caused her to slow down to avoid injury.
She has stayed busy at Faith Baptist Church, where she is a charter member. For years, she took care of the nursery at church, and she is still secretary of the missionary group.
Pastor Jim Gibson said Carter is a delightful and cherished member of the congregation. And she remains an active participant.
“She is very active at church services,” Gibson said recently, and noted that a luncheon for Carter’s 100th birthday is planned for January at the church.
Active is an apt description of Carter, who uses a walker or a cane, but is not afraid of long journeys. In fact, her apartment is on the third floor at the end of a long hallway.
Indeed, she has lead a relatively healthy life. She had a run-in with cancer in 1976, she said, but after surgery she required no additional treatment.
“I give all the credit to the Lord. He’s blessed me abundantly,” she testified.
Carter’s apartment displays a life’s collection of memorabilia. She has a stuffed bear collection, a group of porcelain figurines, and a dressy doll collection that includes one made in the year she was born. She started collecting the dolls about 30 years ago, and they are seated near a photo of her dear mother, who she closely resembles.
On a wall nearby hangs a small figurine of Larry Bird from his basketball-playing days as a Boston Celtic.
“I’m a Pacer fan,” she said, giving a nod to Bird as former coach.
“They’re not doing very well,” she said of the current Pacers, “but I’m still a fan.”
She watches the Indianapolis Colts sometimes, and said she likes the current football coach as much as former head coach Tony Dungy.
“I don’t understand football like I do basketball,” Carter said of watching the Colts, “but they’re a fine team.”
Carter said she spends a lot of time reading, and she enjoys working in her retirement community.
“I love to work downstairs, and help people all I can.”
Carter’s only nearby relative is a niece who also lives at Peddle Park. She has other nieces and nephews in Texas, Fort Wayne, Seymour and Idaho, and a number of great-nieces and great-nephews. Many of them will come to her birthday celebration in January, and she is also planning to hit another 100-year mark in June.
That is when she will return to North Dakota for a centennial celebration in Regent.
“I plan to go back for that,” she said. “I imagine I’ll be the oldest one, I don’t know.”
She was last in her hometown in 1997, and at that time she said she could count the people she knew on one hand.
Carter said she knows of no trick for living a long life, beside her blessings from the Lord. But her active mind, cheerful spirit and eagerness to help others are a good example for all to follow.
Lisa Trigg can be reached at (812) 231-4254 or lisa.trigg@tribstar.com
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Still independent, Ruby Carter approaching 100th birthday
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