Marvis Nell Ruby Ballenger

is honored with a Brick from Marcus Ballenger

Marvis Nell Ruby Ballenger was born February 20, 1908 inTexas to Nora Fenley Ruby and Charles Clement Ruby.  She graduated from Henderson, Texas High School and on June 19, 1927 married Marcus Tinsley Ballenger.  In 1937, a son, Marcus Taylor Ballenger was born.  To many, my Mother may have appeared as a passive, easy-going person . . .  but if you really knew her, she was a â€steel magnolia..† When she set her mind to something . . . whether it was ignoring a situation she didnnâ€t want to face or just maintaining a strongly held belief, she was an uncompromising force. Mother was also a perfectionist.  She simply required that you continue working at a task until it was correct.  This trait was something I learned to appreciate near the beginning in life.  My favorite cooking story is about Mother attempting to teach me to make meringue.  My Mother always made her meringue in a platter.  She held a flat wire whisk in one hand and the platter in the other hand.  With the right hand she would whisk the air into the egg whites.  Well I got the hang of holding the platter in one hand and the whisk in the other, but when I tried to whisk the egg whites, the platter went in one direction and the eggs went in another.  Now, I know that Mother must have been perturbed with me, but she never showed it. After we cleaned the floor, we simply started over.

Teaching seemed to come naturally to Mother, and ittâ€s clear that education was important to her.  During my elementary school years she held offices in the Lufkin Central Ward School Parent Teacher Organization and was its president for several years.  Probably even dearer to her was her service as superintendent of the six-year-old Sunday school department at her church, a position she occupied for some twenty-five years.

Mother was open to most new experiences.  I absolutely marvel when I think about the span of her life and about all that she experienced for the first time †riding in wagons to watching astronauts walk on the moon, and from reading by oil lamps to watching television, using a computer, and cooking by microwave.  Although I never could talk her into flying, she was delighted to use almost every modern invention, especially the telephone. 

Even in her nineties, Mother was a beautiful woman who dressed with stylish sophistication, including, of course, heels and jewelry.  Because I was an only child, she filled the role of mother, sister, brother, and because my father traveled during my early years, she filled the role of father too.  What I will always remember most about Mother is her smile, her friendly nature, her cooking, her giving spirit, her hugs, and her concern for her family.

Dr. Marcus Taylor Ballenger

Professor Emeritus of Curriculum and Instruction

Associate Dean Emeritus of the College of Education Wichita State University