I was born to John R. and Zoe C. Rampton. When I was ten years old, my mother died, leaving seven children; the eldest 16 years old and the baby 14 months old. My maternal grandmother had been living with us for the past few years. She was 77 years old, and she took charge.
Four years later, in 1917, my father married Freda Hanson. When they came home from their wedding trip, Father called us aside and said he wanted us to call his wife "Aunt Fred" so she was always Aunt Freda to us. My grandmother went and lived with one of her daughters and family.
A year later, in 1918, there was the flu epidemic. It had a drastic effect on our family. Within two weeks, three of my sisters had died and were put in the ground.
In 1920 and 1922 my father and Aunt Freda had two lovely children - my sister Lucille and my brother John.
However, I had a feeling that I must leave Utah for a while at least. The opportunity came when a family I had known for seven years moved to California. The family consisted of the father, mother, the eldest a girl my age, and three younger brothers. Before leaving, the mother talked to me and said she knew of my sorrow, and she would like me to consider moving to California for a while. She said that she would be glad to have me live near them because I and her girl were such good friends. They moved there in the Spring of 1926. They had relatives in California.
My sister Wilma and I were working for an insurance company in Salt Lake. When we had our vacations, we decided to go to California. We told the head of the life insurance company that we might stay for some time if we like it there. They gave us some good recommends. Father and Aunt Freda took us to Salt Lake where we got on the bus. Then, when we got to Los Angeles, my girl friend and her father and mother met us at the bus station and took us to their place, which was only a few doors from the Mormon Church. They had an apartment picked out for us. Of course we paid the rent, but it was good to have an apartment and friends. The next day, my girl friend and her mother showed us around downtown Los Angeles. The following day, my sister and I went downtown. I looked up the life insurance companies in the telephone directory and after two interviews, I had a job beginning the next Monday. My sister Wilma got a job in a Dietician's office.
In 1928 I got married. My husband represented a firm in Salt Lake and it changed managers. Although I intended not to work after I was married, it didn't seem wise to quite my job under the circumstances. Next year, 1929, was the Great Depression, so I kept on working for the insurance company. My husband was having difficulties on jobs and with various partners so he asked me to be his partner. I thought it over and decided that with his mechanical ability and my detail ability, we could earn our living. I had some money from an endowment policy and that helped us to get started.
When I was on a vacation to Utah, Aunt Freda said that it had done me good to go to California. I agreed because it helped me to put my three sisters deaths in their place in my life.
- written and signed by Ruth Rampton Duce
Ruth Rampton Duce
Aunt Ruth was born August 20, 1902 in Bountiful, Utah, the 4th child of eight born to John Robertson Rampton and Zoe Cornia. Ruth's mother died in 1913 when Ruth was ten years of age, leaving her father with seven children to care for, ranging in age from 17 to 14 months. The eldest was my father, Ralph, who tells about the terrible flu epidemic in 1918-1919 when three of his sisters Carol, Myla and Zoa died within the space of two weeks from this grim raper. At this time Dad was in the military service and he, along with Ruth, Wilma and Maxine were spared. One other brother, Milo, was born in 1899 and only lived about six weeks. This family was no stranger to the sadness of death.
Grandfather Rampton married Alfreda Hansen in 1917, and Lucille and John were born of his union. Aunt Ruth's only surviving siblings.
Ruth's father was a graduate of the University of Utah, an educator who served 22 years on the Davis County Board of Education, with two terms as President of that body. He was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, holding various positions with the church during his lifetime. He was married to Zoe, then to Alfreda in the Salt Lake Temple.
My father describes his mother, Zoe Cornia, as an optimistic, cheerful woman who loved her husband and large family, serving them with devotion. She loved music and was considered a fine pianist. She could draw beautifully, designing patterns for quilts, which were sewn together from leftover bits of cloth. My father tells of his mother calling him to her bedside just before she died and admonishing him to always to be good to his sisters. He kept that promise, maintaining contact with them throughout his lifetime.
Ruth grew up in a home built by her father, who hauled the materials, dug the foundations and mixed and carried the mortar to the masons working with him. While the building progressed, the entire family came down with smallpox. Apparently the house had a defective flu, causing it to have serious fires on two occasions, before the cause was determined and corrected.
Before the upstairs of the home was finished into three bedrooms and a bathroom and closet, Ruth and her sisters slept on a large wooden bedstead pushed against the rafters. My father decided to make one evening lively for his sisters, so while they were otherwise occupied, he fastened a couple of spools on the rafters and strung a line of twine from the stairwell over the spools to a yardstick on which he placed a pair of old white longjohns. The contraption rested behind the bed. When the girls retired and were in bed, talking and giggle, dad pulled the twine hanging in the stairwell, causing the longjohns to rise up and over the bed. His sisters talked about their fright at this apparition for a long time afterwards.
Ruth's forbearers were sturdy pioneers who trekked to Utah in obedience to the admonitions of the Church elders. Her grandmother, Ruth Clarissa Carter Cornia, was born in Kirtland, Ohio. She recalled occupying Hyrum Smith's house for a brief period, was acquainted with the Prophet Joseph Smith and knew Oliver Cowdery. She wrote about the slaying of Joseph and Hyrum and the hiding of their bodies from the mobs. She attended the funeral procession and described the terror of those days. Moyle will appreciate the fact that she married a Canadian, Peter Cornia, who was born in Sorel, Quebec, Canada and emigrated to the U.S. in 1838.
As a young woman, Ruth left Utah to reside and work in Southern California. She was followed by her sisters, Wilma and Maxine. My recollections of these events are dimmed by the passage of time, but I clearly recall the excitement Lucille, John, my younger brother Jack, and I felt when we learned one or all of the girls would be visiting us in Utah. They would always remember us with gifts and we loved to talk with them and share our wonderment at the exciting world they seemed to live in. Moyle and Ruth were married in 1928 and we met this very independent, quiet, but resourceful man for the first time. Ruth and Moyle seemed very happy, and my father relaxed in the knowledge that Ruth was moving along with a stable helpmate. My dear wife, Bonnie, and I visited with Ruth and Moyle in Los Angeles at the beginning of WWII. I didn't see them again until 1963 when I was in Los Angeles on business and Ruth, Moyle, Frank and Maxine Pausic took me out to dinner. Ruth was the organizing force behind this generous gesture, but sadly it was the last time I met with this wonderful group of relatives. Bonnie and I remember Ruth as an intelligent, independent person, with great warmth and compassion - a loving, but proud and graceful woman. She never seemed to be critical of others - a generous and forgiving soul. Moyle's housekeeper, Maria, described Ruth's attraction to Maria's small grandson, Tony. Whenever he would visit her, Ruth was pleased and excited to see him. And this small child brought her pleasure in her declining days.
As recent events have unfolded, we have learned of the prolonged suffering of Aunt Ruth, the heroic devotion of Uncle Moyle, and the dignity with which both have met this grim challenge. Those having close contact with them relate of the love and sacrifice generously given - an unforgettable example to all of their friends and family. In an odd way, this has served to bring us together, a family with a unique history needing cohesiveness and singularity of purpose. We should not forget what Aunt Ruth and Uncle Moyle have wrought in this closing episode of Aunt Ruth's life.
The scriptures tell us that death is merely a change form one status or sphere of existence to another. Aunt Ruth is released from the infirmity of the flesh and is surely reunited with her beloved brothers and sister.
To Moyle, I close with a poem by Carl Lynn Pearson entitled, "Bound."
There's something strangely false in our
Assured, complete goodbye,
For love's the blood in the flesh of the sould
And the sould will never die.
So - friendly, fondly, as I may
In God's approving view,
I'll call across eternity
For message of you.
Note: Delivered to family of Ruth and Moyle, 9-15-1987 by Ralph J. Rampton
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