Ruth Metcalf

Ruth Ellen (Rhodes) Metcalf died November 6, 2004 after a 5 year fight with cancer. She was born in 1935 in Liberal Kansas to Etta Edith (Case) and James Calvin Rhodes and grew up in Emporia and Wichita. After graduating from Graceland College in Lamoni, Iowa on the morning of June 5, 1955 she married Dewaine Metcalf in the afternoon. During their married life they lived in Missouri, Colorado, Indiana and Kansas. They were married 33 years before his death in 1988. She was a teacher in primary, secondary and adult education, worked in food service & hospitality, and always felt her greatest work was for church and family. Ruth had a gift for mothering-not only her daughter but also nieces and nephews, students and friends she found to be in need of her special variety of love & "mothering". She was ordained to the priesthood office of Elder in the Community of Christ church in 1995. Her greatest treasures in life were faith in God and Jesus, her husband and daughter, her church and her "extended" family by blood, law, love and/or the church. She was preceeded in death by her husband, 3 sisters and brothers-in-law, her parents, and an infant son. She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law Sarah and Gary Middleton of Berryton, 5 "international grandsons" Takuya, Toshiyuki, Yukinao, Yusuke, and Mitsutaka, all of Japan, an "international great-grandson" Kannosuke, many nieces and nephews and a "Granddog" named Ernie. A memorial service will be at 1:30 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2004 at Community of Christ Church in Topeka. Memorial contributions may be sent to Community of Christ Church 5252 SW 19th St. Topeka, KS 66604 or Midland Hospice House 200 SW Fraizer Cir. Topeka, KS 66606. Online condolences may be left at www.penwellgabel.com