Ruby Janet Smith

Ruby Schafer was born February 28, 1935, in Bellingham, WA at St. Joesph’s Hospital just three days after her future husband, Curt Smith; their mothers’ week-long stays overlapped as was the standard in those days. 

A lifelong Bellingham resident, Ruby grew up with her mother Maud, father Harry, and younger sister Joanne, in several houses around Bellingham including at Dellesta Park along Lake Whatcom, Sunset Drive, and 14th Street on South Hill. Days were spent with neighborhood friends in the parks, fields, and open spaces of early Bellingham, and inside with cats and sewing projects when weather didn’t permit outside shenanigans.

Ruby attended Whatcom Junior High and graduated from Bellingham High School in 1953. She then ventured to Colorado Women’s College for two years where she received an associate’s degree. While at CWC, she belonged to Delta Tau Kappa and made fast friends with several dear women, staying in contact with them over the years despite time and distance. She transferred to the University of Washington and received a Bachelor of Science in home economics in 1957 and landed a teaching position in the Renton School District. She and Curt had dated in high school and throughout college. They were married December 22, 1957, while Curt was finishing school. They returned home to Bellingham in 1960 where Curt set up his private dental practice and Ruby began a series of teaching placements with the Bellingham School District. Over the years, she taught at Whatcom, Fairhaven, and Shuksan Middle Schools, and Bellingham High School.

In addition to raising a young family in her early adult years, Ruby found joy in dancing with Curt, singing in the church choir, creating her own concerts for family and friends, volunteering for the Whatcom Museum as a docent, and sewing up a storm.

Ruby left teaching in her middle years to explore other paths and opened Scribbles in 1989, a stationery and gift store in downtown Bellingham. The store expanded the following year and joined up with Village Books. 

In her adult life, Ruby truly enjoyed traveling and chalked up many air and nautical miles with Curt, family members, and friends on adventures around the globe including to Africa, China, and the Amazon River. They held a particular joy for visiting the Southwest, as evidenced by the many treasures and stories, big and small, she managed to bring home. She was a great shopper!

Ruby always had a project underway. From childhood through her teenage and young adulthood, as well as her early mom days and grandma days, her fingers were always at work: needlework, sewing, knitting, socks, dresses, tablecloths, sweaters, pajamas, baby blankets, dog blankets, napkins. Her creations grace the tables, walls, and drawers of family members, friends, and charities across the county and beyond. A little bit of Ruby far and wide. These “gotta be doing something” projects became an important way of connecting and giving back to the community. She provided a steady supply of napkins, pajama sets, baby blankets, and doggie blankets to women’s shelters and animal shelters across the county.

Ruby also pursued a life-long love of decorating, gardening, and shopping—these pursuits often supported each other! Her beautiful gardens and flair for setting a holiday table were notable, and now a family touchpoint among her children and grandchildren.

Most important to Ruby were her family and friends and bulldogs. She grew and nurtured a large family and circle of friends which she embraced with her huge heart, gift for conversation, big personality, stubborn determination, loud laugh, and a lot of grace. Whether an alley chat with a neighbor over the fence in her bathrobe, a happy-hour prosecco and sharing of snacks and updates with a friend in the afternoon, or a deep and lively conversation with family extended over space and time, Ruby loved and valued being together. She demonstrated and passed that love and that value on to her children, their families, and her piles of grandchildren and great-grands. We will all carry those pieces of Ruby with us wherever we walk in this world. 

She deeply loved her South Hill home, its garden, and sharing both with friends and family. Curt’s move to Silverado Memory Care Community after several years of a difficult health journey at home left a big hole in their world and, after a valiant attempt (read as “stubborn”) to manage it solo, Ruby decided to move to The Willows in August 2023. She, with the aid of her designer granddaughter, Rachelle, created a new, beautiful, Ruby abode and rallied to give her new phase of life a big try. Her new friends there quickly identifying her as a “firecracker.” That she was.

Ruby passed away October 17, 2023, at The Willows, at the age of 88 ½. She was preceded in death by her mother Maud Brown, father Henry Schafer, and sister Joanne. She was survived by her husband Curt, children Tori Smith, Craig S. Smith, Kit Anderson (Allen), and stepdaughters Carol Saletto (Joe) and Patti Fairbanks (John), as well as 10 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and bulldog Molly.

May the flowers bloom bright beneath you wherever you travel, Ruby. You are missed.