TOMEY, Ruth Irene (Shanks) 1915-1943

TOMEY, SHANKS, ROBERTS, MOELLER

Posted By: Marilyn O'Connor (email)
Date: 1/6/2011 at 15:11:13

Mrs D. Tomey,
Nee Ruth Shanks,
Dies in Maryland

10 day Illness Proves
Fatal Sunday to Bride
of 2 Months

Funeral Services were held at the Methodist church in Rudd at 2 o'clock Wednesday afternoon for Mrs. Dorsey Tomey, 27, the former Ruth Shanks of Nora Springs, who died Sunday, August 29, 1943, in a hospital at Cumberland, Maryland, after a very brief illness.

Mrs. Tomey was a bride of only a litte more than two months, having been married in Washington, D.C. on June 10 to Sgt. Dorsey Tomey, who had only a short time previously received an honorable medical discharge from the United States army, following service over seas. The couple came here immediately following their marriage and spent two weeks with relatives in and around Nora Springs.

She became gravely ill on Friday, August 20th with encephalitis, an inflamation of the brain, and was taken to a hospital in Cumberland, where the couple had lived since their return to the East from their wedding trip. Mr. Tomey being employed there, as an auxiliary military police in the celanese department of the DuPont, factory which is engaged in war work. Her brother and sisters, Roger Shanks of Nora Springs, Mrs. Paul Moeller of Rudd and Miss Nelva Shanks, who is taking a special nurses' training course in Chicago were called, leaving August 23, and have been at their sister's bedside ever since, although she never regained conciousness from the time of their arrival until her death at 6 o'clock Sunday morning.

Ruth Irene Shanks was born to Arthur I. Shanks and Myra Roberts Shanks at Nora Springs on Sept. 27, 1915. She was graduated from the Rudd high school in 1933, and in the following year was graduated from Hamilton's College in Mason City.

She remained at home during the illness of her mother, who died in November, 1936; and of her father, who died in March of 1938. Later she was employed in Los Angeles, Cal.,and attended a business and radio school there. Following her return to Iowa, she was a student at Iowa State Teachers college at Cedar Falls for a year and a half, and was employed at Clear Lake during the summer vacations. In February, 1941, she obtained a civil service postion in the department of commerce in Washington, D.C., and was thus employed until her marriage in June, 1943.

The survivors are her brother, Roger Shanks of Nora Springs; two sisters, Mrs. Paul Moeller (Jean) of Rudd and Miss Nelva Shanks of Chicago; two nieces, Virginia Shanks and Nancy Moeller; and a large circle of relatives as well as friends.

The pastor of the church the Rev. Emmet E. Clements conducted the rites Wednesday, and burial was made beside her parents in Rock Grove cemetery, south of Nora Springs.

The pall bearers were Jack Winkler of Washington, D. C., Donald Roberts, Russell Shanks, Duane Shanks and Chester Brandau.