Jackson resident Ruth Andersen died peacefully at St. Johns Hospital on March 23, 2019. Funeral services were held Saturday, March 30 in Pinedale, Wyoming, with burial alongside family in the Pinedale Cemetery.

Ruth Olson was born at home on October 9, 1922 in Groveland, Idaho. She grew up on a sugar beet farm with a brother and two sisters, in a family that was fully self- sufficient; raising their own vegetables and fruits, as well as cattle, sheep, chickens and pigs. Ruth and her sisters helped their mother make butter and soap for the family, and sold eggs to buy flour for baking and fabric for their clothing.

Growing up, Ruth liked to play basketball and baseball in the summers and was even a cheerleader. She didn't finish high school however, and instead married John Andersen on November 26, 1940. Over the next few years, John worked on farms in the Groveland, Pingree and Blackfoot area and they had two children – Geraldine and Boyd. John left to serve in World War II as a medical technician in the Army, assisting in surgeries and spent time on Iwo Jima. He was gone for eighteen months and had to leave Ruth when she was six months pregnant with their third child, Caroline. Ruth often didn't know where John was stationed, as his letters to her at that time were censored by the Army.

John returned home in December 1945 and the family moved to Salmon, Idaho. They lived and worked on various ranches in the Salmon and Leadore areas, before moving to the Hunter Ranch in Jackson Hole in 1952. Eileen Hunter had lost her husband and needed a ranch foreman to raise her registered Hereford cattle. The family spent the next eighteen years on the ranch north of Kelly, and the kids attended school and church on Mormon Row. The fourth addition to the family came when daughter Linda was born. Enduring many harsh winters of the earlier years on the ranch, their source of travel from their home on Antelope Flats to the main highway was via snow plane. They spent summers irrigating the alfalfa fields for hay for the Herefords and gathering firewood for winter, and fishing. John loved to fish and they spent as much time as possible fishing Slide, Jenny and Jackson lakes, either from shore or in a boat.

Ruth went to work in the kitchen at St. John's hospital, starting out as a tray girl and worked as head cook when she retired. All the food was prepared from scratch at that time which was easy for Ruth, but accommodating the different diets were a challenge. One day a Dr. ordered a dry liquid diet for a patient, which was a puzzle on what that actually was. The Dr. told Ruth, "Just make it as dry as you can."

John drove school bus for many years, picking up kids from Kelly, along Antelope Flats and Mormon Row and either taking them to Moose to catch the bus that came from Moran, or in the later years driving them to the schools in Jackson.

John, Ruth and Linda moved from the Hunter Ranch to Jackson in 1970. John and Ruth moved to Pinedale in 1988, and lived there for over thirty years. When John passed away in 1999, Ruth became even more fiercely independent than she already was, insisting on chopping and packing her own firewood and mowing her lawn. Ruth had many friends and family in Pinedale, and became active in the LDS church. Her advancing age and struggle with congestive heart failure precipitated her moving into Pioneer Homestead in Jackson in 2014.

Ruth loved to read, knit and crochet, and kept friends and family members supplied with afghans, as well as dishcloths with matching hot pads for many years. She loved spending time with family, going on picnics and long car rides.

Ruth was preceded in death by her husband John, her brother Darwin Olson and sisters Lorraine Mecham and Veora Belnap, her daughters Caroline Foster and Gerri Barefield, her grandsons Kevin Andersen and Kirk Campbell and her granddaughter Julie Boyle.

She is survived by her son Boyd (Judy) Andersen of Pinedale, her daughter Linda Hazen of Jackson along with grandsons Les (Sheree) of Pinedale, Fred (Mickey) Campbell of Kemmerer, John (Holly) Foster of Victor, Idaho, Wayne (Melissa) Andersen of Boise, Idaho and granddaughter Lisa Hazen of Seattle, Washington. Ruth also has 14 great grandchildren, 16 great, great grandchildren and many nephews and nieces and their extended families.

Ruth's children would like to thank the staff at St. John's Hospital for their compassion and dedication to their mothers care, especially Dr. Martha Stearn, and Emily Holden.