Former Hollister resident
Former Hollister resident Ruby Harriet McCord Kane died Thursday, April 3, 2003 in Santa Rosa. She was 83.
Mrs. Kane was born on the family farm in Iowa, delivered by her father. An aspiring acrobat in her youth, after two years at Ellsworth College in Iowa Falls she became the “schoolmarm” in a one-room school, where she taught until she married Jerrald L. Kane. In the early 1940s the couple moved to Redondo Beach, where Mrs. Kane became president of the South Bay District PTA.
The family, with their two children, later moved to LaVerkin, Utah, then to Sacramento and finally to Hollister in 1959, where Mrs. Kane was active in the Hollister Women’s Club and was an accomplished seamstress, quilter, potter, jewelry maker and soprano who sang in church choirs. In the early ’60s she obtained a California teaching credential and taught fourth and fifth grades in San Juan Bautista. She briefly was a caseworker for the San Benito County Welfare Department before starting the English as a Second Language program at San Benito High School. She was also the school’s publicist and wrote features for the Free Lance on every graduating SBHS senior, as well as stories on school activities, from 1963 to her retirement in 1978. When her husband died in 1991 she moved to Santa Rosa to be near two of her children.
She is survived by her children, Susan Kane of Fresno, Jeffrey Kane and his wife, Sue, and Barbara Proctor, all of Santa Rosa; her sisters and brothers, Connie Priestley of Sacramento, Allene Minnis of Osage, Iowa, and Robert and Franklin McCord, both of Iowa Falls; her stepmother, Lenore McCord of Iowa Falls; 11 grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and 14 nieces and nephews.
A memorial service will be held at the First Congregational Church of Christ, 2000 Humboldt St. in Santa Rosa. For date and time, call the church at (707) 546-0998 or Adobe Creek Funeral Home at (707) 789-9000.
