Ruby Spear Obituary

This amazing 93 1/2 yr old Great Great Grandmother, with 85 direct descendants was born at the "Old Bareman Place" north of Cortez, the 5th of 8 children to Hazel Eley and Ernest Lewis Maynes. They moved to 115 S Linden in Cortez where she grew up. Her Dad was the mailman and ran a farm outside town, so during the depression they always had enough to eat & share.

She graduated from Montezuma County High School where she was a cheer leader, prominent in theater (a National Thespian) and loved to dance. She was an active member of the Cortez branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

She remembered the day Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and prayed for her brothers David and Bob who served our country with honor. Her brother Bob Maynes later served his country as Mayor of Cortez.

Ruby married a soldier, Jay H Spear who took her to SLC, UT to be married in the House of the Lord at Temple Square. They had five daughters who gave them 19 grandchildren, 48 great grandchildren and 13 great great grandchildren. She knew all their birthdays & they each watched for grandma's card/letter which always came. Each received a letter & money at her death.

Ruby had a brilliant mind to her last day on Earth. A few months before she left, she won a talent show for reciting two long memorized poems with wit and charm. She led water exercises in the mornings and still drove her little yellow Prius around town by herself to appointments and shopping.

She and Jay served four years as missionaries for the Church. They visited every state in the Union as well as Canada, Mexico, Italy, Australia and Ireland. She served others in countless ways including, a teacher of children and young women, a seminary teacher and a den mother.

Her last words to family who visited were, "Love Each Other." "Be Happy." Her very last words were, "Just Do It!" She lived by her mother's often repeated poem: "If we notice little pleasures like we notice little pains; If we quite forget our losses, but remember all our gains; If we notice people's virtues and their faults refuse to see; what a pleasant happy place this world will be."

Preceding her in death are her husband of 69 years Jay Spear, and her siblings: David, Mary, Robert, Luella, Howard, Ruth and Karen. Her children are all living: Trudy [Kent] Thurgood, Jeannie Spear, Dawna [Ray] Booth, Paula [Steve, dec.] Johnson and Brenda Giblin. She will be buried with her beloved husband Jay in the Heber-Overgaard Cemetery in Heber, Arizona.

If you remember Ruby Lee Maynes Spear, she sends you her love and lasting friendship. She loved Cortez and you to the end. If you would like a copy of her life story: 435-705-9317