Ruby was the daughter of James Robert Keene and Sarah Alice Yates, born in 1892 in Texas, possibly Fannin, Potter, or Floyd Counties based on the birthplaces of her siblings and the family's location in 1900. The birth year on her stone is factually incorrect but likely what the daughter or son who purchased the stone understood to be their mother's birth year. The 1900 Census gives Ruby's age as 8 with a birthdate of May 1892.

I have sent for Ruby's Death Certificate to see what data is on it and am especially interested in who the Informant was; I anticipate it was her (apparent) only daughter whose Death Certificate I have also ordered, but perhaps I will discover another child!

I have been researching Ruby intensely for about 3 weeks (March 2024) as she is the mother of an uncle who died a tragic death at a young age before I was born.

When I first researched my uncle 10 years ago, I became quickly aware that his father, Ruby's first husband, was incarcerated some years after she had apparently divorced him. I was overwhelmed by the extraordinary newspaper coverage given that man's case and so after finding my uncle's burial location (which brought another unsettling discovery) and visiting his grave to honor his short life, I shifted my research to another family.

With a recent (March 2024) phone call from a family member more closely related to Ruby (thru her son) than I am, I decided to see if I could find my uncle's mother whom I believed was indeed Ruby Keene as that is the name of the Informant on my uncle's Death Certificate.

What I did not expect was finding nothing in any Ancestry Family Tree or the FamilySearch Family Tree that provided any clues to Ruby's life after her marriage and children with her first husband. A Geneanet Community Tree gave a date of death but no location, and that date is inaccurate now that I have finally traced Ruby thru her life and 2 subsequent husbands.

The key to finding Ruby in her later (although still young) life was my recollection from 10 years prior that the 1920 Census in which my uncle was recorded with his older brother showed no adults in the home. The boys were 7 and 9, clearly too young to be living by themselves. So I made a page by page search of that Census set and was both surprised and thrilled to find a family of 3 four pages earlier that included a Ruby as the mother and a daughter whose name I had only recently discovered. But it was the address that clinched it as it was the same for both this family of 3 and the 2 boys living by themselves: 502 Concord, Los Angeles Township, Los Angeles County. Why the Enumerator recorded the family of 5 in 2 "chunks" 4 pages apart without a notation/reference being made adjacent to either group is a mystery. I have found "divided households" in Census records in later searches, but in those cases the Enumerators made notes as to what page other members of the household were recorded.

Ruby's Marriages and Children

First Marriage: The CA record of Ruby's first marriage shows:

Ruby May Keene, age 18, to Gilbert F Collie, age 22; both reside Fort Yuma, AZ

Date: 14 Mar 1909

Location: Potholes, Imperial County, California.

Comments:

-- Given Ruby's actual birth date, she was still 16, becoming 17 within 2 months.

-- I discovered Potholes described as follows (Wikipedia): "a former gold camp and settlement in Imperial County, CA", going on to say it was located on a railroad line 4 miles NE of Bard near the Colorado River "near the site of the Laguna Dam". That dam was built July 1905 to ~1909 as a key step in accessing and controlling Colorado River water for farming and to mitigate flooding. From the many articles I read about this first husband, it is likely he was working on the dam as he was a blacksmith.

Children from this marriage: Two sons and one daughter were born to these parents, all in CA :

1. Male Collie: b ~1911
2. Herbert Collie: b 4 Dec 1912
3. Daughter: b 1916 (2 records give Collie as her birth name)

Second Marriage:

I haven't found a marriage record for Ruby's second marriage which was to Gilbert Jara, either in Los Angeles or possibly Arizona. But they must have been married, or at least agreed to live together, by early 1920 as they appear as husband and wife in Los Angeles in 1920 per that Census with a 3-year old "daughter" with the Jara name. Later, I found Gilbert's WWI Draft Registration which shows him as single. Since that information was given in Sep 1918, I believe 1919 is a very good guess for when they married. (Their location in the 1920 Census is the Census described earlier in which family members appear in the Census on 2 separate pages.)

Children from this marriage:

1. Richard Francis Jara: b 13 Jan 1921, Los Angeles County, CA

I found Richard in the CA Birth Index which confirms his mother as "Keen" and in FaG where his niche gives the same birth date as his CA Birth Record. He is interred in New Mexico which does not make death record information publicly available.

I also found Richard in a WW II Army Enlistment Record which indicates he enlisted 3 Mar 1941 in Los Angeles; it noted he would serve with the Quartermaster Corps. It also noted "Architects" as his "Civil Occupation".

A NM Marriage record showed he married Elva Jara (assume this is her married name, but he could have married a woman with the same birth name as his, of course) in Las Cruces, NM on 10 Apr 1955. I will re-check the year as I also found Richard living in El Paso, Texas with wife Elva and a newborn, Ruby Rae (a nice reassurance he was Ruby Mae Keene's son) in 1950.

Third Marriage:

Ruby's final marriage was to man of Portuguese descent, Ernest Santos Figueiredo. I initially did not find a Marriage record, but a later search turned up a Marriage Record in Yuma County, Arizona between Ernest S Figueiriedo and Ruby Maxwell, both "of Los Angeles". No other identifying information was recorded (or required) on either the License or the Certificate, both dated 15 June 1940.

I searched for "Ruby Maxwell" to see what I could find and did find one woman by that name, married to husband Ernest Maxwell, living together with children both years before and years after June 1940, I believe their location was in Northern California (did not document). My conclusion: Ruby used an "alias" becasue she was most likely still legally married to Gilbert Jara.

The date of this marriage certainly fits well with the CA Voter Registrations I found and Ernest's surname was relatively rare in this era. The fact that his name, including his MI, matches Ruby's husband's name in the CA Voter Registration and on his FaG memorial assures me this is, indeed, Ruby Keene, embarking on her third marriage.

I was able to identify Ruby's husband by searching the California Voter Registration records on Ancestry. Ruby appeared in these records in the 1940's thru 1960's as Ruby M Figueriedo but she was the only person with this surname in the first 8 or so such records I looked at. Finally, I found the 1942 CA Voter Registration and Ruby's name was accompanied by her husband, Ernest Figueriedo. They are living at the same address in Los Angeles (3717 S Broadway) and their occupations are listed as Upholsterer and Housewife. Ernest first came to my attention as the brother of George Figuerido whom I found in 2 newspaper articles in the 1940's when he was Chief of the Santa Monica Police Dept. As one might guess, there were few people with this surname in the Southern California area in the 1940's.

It appears this marriage was likely also short-lived as the CA Voter Registration for 1944 and subsequent years shows Ruby's name but not Ernest's, nor any other person by this surname at Ruby's address. Of course, it's possible Ernest simply did not register to vote in subsequent elections. I found Ernest's CA Death Record and his FaG memorial, both of which document his death in 1974. I have linked Ruby to Ernest.

I doubt Ruby had any children with Ernest as she would have been 48 when they married and I found nothing to indicate she had given birth to yet another child.

Ruby's Death, Likely in Santa Monica, CA

I found 2 California Death Records for Ruby, one as Ruby M Jara, and a second as Ruby M Figueriedo. Both had identical birth and death dates. The birth dates also match the birth month and year on the 1900 Census. I've sent for both Death Certificates and suspect one is the original and the 2nd is an amended certificate. It will be about 2 months before I receive these records based on past experience with the CA Dept of Public Health.

Finding Ruby's 2nd and 3rd marriages fulfilled a difficult search for her after the 1940 Census which was the last I found her in and she used her birth name. The marriage records enabled me to locate Ruby's death record and burial location. I am grateful to CindyLulu for willingly transferring Ruby's memorial to me so I could document the trail I followed to identify her at the end of her life so others who may research Ruby will be aware. I will create memorials for her 2 other Collie children when I receive their Death Certificates. I sent a Suggested Edit to link her Jara son to her a few days ago (20 Mar 2024).

20 Mar 2024: Memorial transferred to me by CindyLulu (Thank you!)

21-22 Mar 2024: Draft bio mostly completed

24 Mar 2024: Draft Bio completed; awaiting Ruby's Death Certificate for possible additional information

27 Mar 2024: Added the late finding of Gilbert Jara's WWI Draft Registration

Vicki Edwards

Los Angeles

Niece of Ruby's son, Herbert Collie