Ruby Irene Maples Haws

Ruby Irene Maples Haws, age 98, passed away at Autumn Care in Hyde
Park, on September 5, 2022. She was born May 16, 1924, in Pikeville, Wayne
County, North Carolina a daughter of Bertha Allah Aycock and Charlie Maples.
She grew up on a tobacco farm with lots of family living all around her. Until a
small chapel was built, church was often held in the homes of her extended family.
She was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in
the swamp near her home. Family and church stayed at the center of her life. Ruby
learned how to work hard and fast at a young age in the cotton and tobacco fields
and around the home. She could keep up with anyone on any chore well into her
nineties.
She attended schools in Pikeville and was a scholar and an athlete. She
graduated when she was 16 and also starred with her sister Shirley on the
championship basketball team for Nahunta High School. As a mother she was still
able to impress her childrens’ friends with her skills on the court and on the ball
diamond.
With the Second World War starting, Ruby moved to Nashville, TN, to learn
riveting and became “Ruby the Riveter” in an airplane factory in Elizabeth City,
NC. Later with her sisters Shirley, Betty and Dorothy she worked in Norfolk, VA,
at the naval base. When the war ended she served a full-time mission in the
Northern California mission. After her mission she and four of her sisters
transplanted to Utah and married “Mormon husbands.” She married Gordon
Willmore Haws on January 27, 1950, in the Logan LDS Temple. She is the mother
of seven children: Charles (Annette) Haws, Elizabeth (Kent) Sundberg, Nathan
(Chris) Haws, Randall (Debbie) Haws, Suzanne (Jim) Smith, Marvin (Ann) Haws,
and Irene (Gordon) Allred. They raised their family in the shadow of the Logan
Temple and within walking distance of Gordon’s work at Logan Savings and Loan.
Ruby was a respected member of her community and neighborhood, and served in
the PTA and as a poll worker.
She was a faithful and busy member of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, serving in Primary, Relief Society, Sunday School, and Young
Womens. She served a mission with her husband, Gordon, to New Zealand. Her
last words to her posterity were spirit-filled with a surety of Jesus Christ and His
restored gospel. She is survived by her seven children, 41 grandchildren and 93
great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great-granddaughter, two sisters, Shirley Olsen
and Dorothy Schvandevelt (her best friends), sister-in-law, Laura Beth Barrett and
brother-in-law, Jess Smith.
Ruby was preceded in death by her husband, Gordon Willmore Haws, her
siblings, Rachel Amy, Ollie Jane, Hyrum Richard, Betty Ellen, Henry Thomas, and
Martha.
Funeral services will be at Nelson Funeral Home, 162 East 400 North,
Logan on Monday, September 12. A viewing will be held that morning from 10:30
to 11:30. Funeral services at 12:00 noon. Interment will be in the Logan City
Cemetery.