Published in the Fairview Enterprise and Sabetha Herald:

Ruth Lambertson, long time resident of the Fairview community, died on February 8, 2011, in Barrington Illinois, at the age of 95. She lived on the family farm north of Fairview for nearly 60 years, in the Apostolic Village, Sabetha, for seven years, and in the home of her daughter, Floy Shaeffer of Barrington, for the last nine years. A memorial service for Ruth will be held at the Delaware Baptist Church in Fairview on April 9.

Anna Ruth Shattuck Lambertson was born on January 7, 1916, in Ashland, Kansas, the daughter of Willis and Ethel Shattuck. She grew up on the Shattuck Ranch twenty miles northeast of Ashland. Ruth loved life on the ranch in all its aspects, including horseback riding, at which she was quite skilled. She learned to play the piano at an early age, accompanying the congregation of the Lexington Community Church for the first time when she was twelve years old. (She recalled being mildly chided by her mother for putting too much "swing" into the hymns that morning; fortunately she did not let that criticism change her musical approach.) Ruth graduated from Ashland High School in 1933. She attended the College of Emporia and Kansas State for one year, and worked at the State House in Topeka. It was in Topeka that she met Alonzo Lambertson in 1935. They were married in the First Presbyterian Church of Ashland on September 6, 1936.

Ruth and Alonzo returned from a Colorado honeymoon to the Lambertson farm, just north of Fairview, at the end of the hottest and driest summer in Kansas history. There they raised four children, made a good life, and participated actively in the community. Ruth taught Sunday school at the Delaware Baptist Church for many years (occasionally deviating slightly from the lesson, to the delight of the children), played for the church choir for more than fifty years, and on countless occasions accompanied Alonzo when he sang for the congregation and at community functions, weddings and funerals. Ruth was a superb accompanist and, counting from that first Sunday service at the Lexington Church in 1928, could point to more than seventy years of musical performance.

In addition to her church activities, Ruth was a member of PEO, Fairview's Starlight Literary Club, the Bluebird Home Extension Unit, Eastern Star, and other organizations. She became an enthusiastic traveler in her later years, making trips to Japan, Korea and Australia with Alonzo, to Indonesia and Europe by herself, and to Thailand twice, accompanied by Bill and Nancy Lambertson and by Floy and Peter Shaeffer.

Ruth will be remembered for her good humor, her tenderness and her loving spirit. She touched the lives of many people, in Fairview and far beyond, with her generosity and grace. Ruth was a highly popular aunt to her many nieces and nephews. She was a devoted caregiver to her mother-in-law, Floy Lambertson, in the last years of Mrs. Lambertson's life and to W.P. Lambertson in the years following Mrs. Lambertson's death.

Ruth loved her family unreservedly, always giving them her unqualified support. They will miss her greatly. She also loved the Delaware Baptist Church, the farm and Fairview.

Ruth was preceded in death by her husband Alonzo, and her brother Willis A. Shattuck. She is survived by her sisters Jean Hooper of Arlington, Virginia and Ellen Simon of Queensbury, New York, and her brother Dan of Salina. Ruth is also survived by her children, Bill and Nancy Lambertson of Barrington, Illinois, David and Sacie Lambertson of Winchester, Kansas, Giles Lambertson of Wilson, North Carolina, and Floy and Peter Shaeffer of Barrington, Illinois, and by numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews.