EINAN’S FUNERAL HOME Ruby Lucille Stafford Kern died October 7, 2004 at Kadlec Medical Center in Richland, Washington. She was proud to be 86 years of age. Ruby was born June 7, 1918 in a small village in upper New York State named Lacona. Born to Frank Stafford and Bernice Peck Stafford, she grew-up during the Depression, enjoying the rich security, although hard work, of their family’s dairy farm.. After graduating from high school, she worked alongside one of her lifetime friends, Madeline Blowers Simonds Walker, as both a nanny to families of the well-to-do in Illinois and as a care-giver to the mentally ill in New York State. Ruby married John William Kern, from New Castle, IN, on October 1, 1939 at her parents’ home and farm in Lacona, NY. For two years as young married they traveled to almost all of the then forty-eight states, working in local and national carnivals. In 1944, pregnant and with a three-year-old in tow, she followed her husband from Ilion, NY—the home of Remington Firearms—to a top secret, World War II project called Hanford, near Richland, WA. As her husband’s favorite photographic model, Ruby loved to dress-up in fashionable clothes. When an opportunity came along in the early 1950’s to work with the Hurt family in their uptown Richland dress shop, she was overjoyed. While her two boys played Little League and Pony League baseball, Ruby would volunteer to keep the game’s official play-by-play scorecard. She loved playing cards—pinochle and bridge—with family and friends. In later years she found a great deal of satisfaction while designing and assembling holiday crafts with close friends and neighbors. Ruby was preceded in death by her husband, as well as her brother, Clarence Stafford and her sister, Catherine Stafford Alexander. Her survivors include her sons, Jerome Scott Kern, now residing in Orem, UT and John William Kern, Jr., living in Fort Worth, TX; six grandchildren--Christopher, Scott, Kimberly, Michael, Laura, and Matthew--and a great-grandchild, Caroline. The family wishes to give a special thanks to Ruby’s kind and ever thoughtful neighbors, the supportive and attentive staff of Alterra Assisted Living Center, and the consciensious and professional medical care provided by doctors and nurses at the Cardiac Care Unit of Kadlec Medical Center. At Ruby’s request there will not be a public funeral service. Interment will take place in the Sunset Memorial Gardens, Near Einan’s Funeral Home in Richland, WA. In lieu of flowers the family requests that contributions be made to the American Heart Association.