Bertie  COUNTY  NC  Obits  Viola Elizabeth Ruffin

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VIOLA ELIZABETH RUFFIN


Windsor.

Miss Viola Elizabeth Ruffin passed away on December 8, 2001. She was born May 10, 1916 to the late Willie and Mary E. Ruffin.  Her sister, Alice and brothers, Willie Lewis, Sr and Thomas Sr. preceded her in death.

She was a teacher for 39 years.

Survivors include a son, Thomas W. Ruffin, Jr., (Brenda) three grandchildren, Jonathan Dwayne, Torri Salete and Eva Katelle Ruffin and four great grandchildren.

Funeral services were held on Friday, December 14, 2001 at Indian Woods Missionary Baptist Church at 1:00pm with Pastor Sarah W. Utterbach and Pastor Larry Walston officiating.  Burial followed in the Hillcrest Cemetery.

Gilliam Funeral Home was in charge of the arrangements.


Jeannette White interviewed Miss Ruffin and below is a portion of this column.


For 82 years Viola Elizabeth Ruffin has been taking care
of other people, nourishing both their minds and their
bodies.

There were times when she saw a need and borrowed to keep
somebody aloat, quietly paying the money back "on time".
People seldom knew of the good deeds because she didn't
tell.

Now there are people who want to take care of her and she
is enjoying every minute of it.

This has been an especially good year and her most often-
repeated phrases these days are "God is so good">

"It's just a year the Lord has truly blessed, " Miss
Ruffin said last week.

Within the past few weeks she has taken her first
airplane ride--in a private jet--got her passport for the
first time, visited several states and Canada and made
plans to visit Israel.

Miss Ruffin is daughter of the late Elizabeth and Willie
Ruffin, a farmer. She still lives in the house on
Grabtown Road where she was born. He parents only had
three children, but the house was always full of foster
children and any youngster who needed attention.

The home has also opened its doors to older people who
needed help.

Miss Ruffin's adopted brother fathered Thomas Ruffin, Jr.
who is Supervisor of Student Services and Health
Coordinator for Bertie County Schools.  Ruffin's mother
died when he was nine months old and his grandmother died
when he was nine years olds, so he was raised by Miss
Viola.  She never married and he is her only son, the
person who has been looking after her for years.

Miss Ruffin graduated from W.S. Etheridge School in 1934
and State Normal School at Elizabeth City. In later
years, she earned an A-certificate to teach and then a
bachelor of science degree.

Her first teaching job was Penders School in the Roanoak
River low ground near Lewiston Woodville. In times of
heavy rain, the low ground flooded and she had to be
paddled to school through the woods in a canoe.

Miss Ruffin began teaching at the new Avoca School in
1940. She boarded at the Winston farm during the week and
walked two miles to her one-room school.

Every day she took kindling to start a fire in the wood
heater. She also had to carry students' files and records
in a big black bag.

One day Annie Francis Williams came over to the teacher
and quietly said, "Miss Ruffin, Miss Ruffin, the school
is on fire">

The teacher and students saved everything they could,
including the piano. One student knew all the important
papers were in the black bag and towed it across the
field to keep it from burngin.

The second Avoca School was built in 1943 and she taught
there four years, in Indian Woods 11 years and at W.S.
Etheridge 23 years before she retired in 1978.

When her students had to stay out of school to work on
the farm, Miss Ruffin worked with them and earned the
title of "cotton picking teacher" for her ability to pick
300 pounds in one day.

In those days, she often spent part of her meager salary
to buy needed supplies for her students.....