Helen Ruth (Jantzen) Unruh
1929 - 2021
NORTH NEWTON:
Helen Ruth Jantzen Unruh, beloved
mother, wife, aunt, relative and friend, passed away on February 20,
2021 at Salem Home in Hillsboro, Kansas from complications following
a heart attack in January.
Helen Ruth leaves behind her son Jon of
North Newton; her sister-in-law Anne Koch Jantzen; nieces and nephews
Steve (Janis), Karen (Leon), Ron (Jeri), Bob (Ani), Don (Damaris),
Dan (Deb), Lisa (Tim), Kristine, and Franz (Jean); close cousins
Marjorie and Jeanette (Steve), and her many friends at Kidron Bethel
Village and beyond.
She was preceded in death by her loving
husband of 63 years, Robert Unruh, in 2016, and by her brothers and
three spouses: Richard and Hilda, Ted and Maureen, Paul and Elaine,
and Carl.
Ruth was born August 21, 1929, to Jacob
and Helen Jantzen in Beatrice, Nebraska. She grew up with her four
brothers at their home on the west edge of Beatrice, and has fond
memories of playing together in the pasture behind the Lonesome Ridge
country school which they attended. After 9th and 10th grade at
Mennonite Bible Academy, she graduated from Beatrice High School. She
was baptized in 1944 at Beatrice Mennonite Church, where she played
piano as a young girl.
Ruth graduated in 1953 from Bethel
College, where she met Robert Unruh. They were married June 19, 1953.
Ruth taught one year at Maple Hill elementary school in rural Marion
County, before the Unruh's moved to Kingman. In Kingman County,
Kansas she taught elementary school music in Spivey and Ninnescah
schools. In Lehigh and Kingman Ruth established a piano teaching
studio, while Robert worked for the US Postal Service and as a piano
tuner. It was in Kingman that Ruth and Bob welcomed their son, Jon,
into their home. Both Bob and Jon enjoyed singing in choirs over the
years.
In 1987 the Unruh's moved to
Hutchinson, where Ruth played piano and organ at First Mennonite
Church in Hutchinson, and also accompanied choirs. In 2006 they moved
to Kidron Bethel Village in North Newton, and joined the Bethel
College Mennonite Church. Bob and Ruth greatly enjoyed their new
community and church, where Ruth was involved with the organ
committee, a women's circle program committee, and worked as a
volunteer at the Kauffman Museum. In 2013 Bob entered the nursing
unit, and passed away in 2016. In 2019, Ruth moved into Assisted
Living, and that September celebrated her 90th birthday with an open
house and a gathering of many relatives and friends.
Ruth loved family, friends and music.
She credited her father with introducing her to a wide range of
political and religious ideas, and her mother to German chorales,
poetry and nature. She cherished childhood memories of winter
evenings by the wood stove where her father would read aloud while
her mother carved miniature birds. Ruth's own spiritual pilgrimage
nurtured both a strong faith and an appreciation for mystery in life;
in 2016 she closed her Christmas card with her own wise words, "Into
this unsettled world comes God's quiet."
In keeping with one of Ruth's favorite
lines of Scripture, "Sing to the Lord a new song" (Psalms
96:1), donations in her memory can be made to the Organ Fund at
Bethel College Mennonite; (please put "organ fund" in the
memo line) or Mennonite Central Committee (MCC). Contributions may be
sent to Broadway Colonial Funeral Home, 120 E. Broadway, Newton, KS
67114.
A committal service will be held
graveside Thursday April 8, 2021, 2pm in Greenwood Cemetery, Newton
Kansas.
Condolences may be left at
www.broadwaycolonialfh.com.
Arrangements are by Broadway Colonial
Funeral Home, Newton.
