Ruby Beasley

BIOGRAPHY

Beasley was born as Ruby Lee Renegar north of Caddo Creek, located near Ardmore, Oklahoma, on 6 November 1910 to Charlie S. and Katie (Bennett) Renegar. She was raised on her parents’ ranch with her four sisters, Vera, Thelma, Ruth, and Charlene.

As a toddler, Beasley was nicknamed “Dad’s Cowboy”, and started helping her father on the ranch from an early age. Getting up at 4 o’clock daily, she would start a fire in the kitchen to prepare breakfast for the two, and would feed all the cattle before Beasley left for school. The Renegar sisters would be hard pressed to walk the mile to their school on time. After school finished, they would rush back home to complete their chores before sundown.

Beasley attended school in Nebo until ninth grade. She married her first husband, Frances E. Butler, on 23 March 1927, when she was 16. The couple had four children: Francis, Earl, Helen, and Hazel. She remarried to George Beasley on 26 August 1946.

The Beasleys relocated to San Antonio, Texas, where they owned and operated a dairy farm with 95 cattle until 1979. Upon their retirement, they decided to move to Sulphur, Oklahoma, where they would remain for the rest of their lives. Beasley was widowed in 1990.

During her centenarian years, Beasley remained strongly independent. She mowed her own lawn until the age of 105, she would tell her children and grandchildren that her fashion sense was such so people would assume she was a man, to avoid being seen as vulnerable.

Beasley died on 8 January 2021 at the age of 110 years, 63 days. She was survived by her youngest sister Charlene, who died in 2022 aged 97, as well as her daughter Hazel, and 11 grandchildren, 25 great-grandchildren, 39 great-great-grandchildren, and one great-great-great-grandson.

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Ruby Beasley

Ruby Beasley