Memorial services for Ruth Elizabeth Clark, 96, Tipton, will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 12, 2021, at Fry Funeral Home in Tipton, with Pastor Cynthia Ryssemus officiating. Burial will follow in Sharon cemetery, rural Wilton.
The family will receive friends from 10 to 11 a.m., prior to the service, on Thursday.
Ruth Clark died early Monday morning, Aug. 9 while under the care of Cedar Manor Nursing Home in Tipton. The daughter of Elmer Dodd Hinkhouse and Freda Swenson Hinkhouse, she was born on July 4, 1925 in Muscatine. She attended Sharon country school and graduated from Wilton high school at age 16 with the Class of 1941. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from Parsons College in Fairfield and her Master’s Degree from the University of Iowa in Iowa City. She became a schoolteacher, which took her first to Earlham school, then to Tama where she taught her students at the Sac and Fox Settlement School (and this is where she met her future husband, Herbert Clark). Ruth and Herb moved to Tipton in 1953 and she taught Junior High Speech and Social Studies in Bennett, a career that lasted 25 years until she retired from Bennett School in 1986. Ruth and her husband owned the Tipton Conservative and Advertiser for many years and she wrote a weekly column in the paper called East of the Tracks. The column ran for over 40 years. She also served as the editor of the paper while her husband was on military duty. Ruth was very active in Tipton. She served on the Tipton Library Board for 45 years, was a member of the P.E.O. Chapter DY, a member of the Tri Sigmas and was very active in the Tipton United Methodist Church for many years. She is survived her children, Krista Clark (Danny Ford), Tipton; Maeve Clark, Iowa City; Arthur (Debbie) Clark, Sugarland, Texas; Brian Clark (Tish Lafferty), Madison, Wis.; and Stuart (Sharon) Clark, Tipton; grandchildren, Mathew Clark, Tacoma, Wash. and Madeline and Anders Clark, Madison, Wis.; Caitlyn Clark, Sugarland, Texas; Erin Clark (Robert Bunn) and their children, Eliza and Isla Bunn of Ireland; and Eric (Kim) Clark, and their son, Callum, Lake Mills, Wis. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband and her brother, John Hinkhouse.
A memorial fund has been created in her memory with proceeds being directed to Cedar Manor Nursing Home or the Tipton Library. Online condolences may be shared at www.fryfuneralhome.com
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