The Franklin News-Post
P. O. Box 250
310 Main Street, SW
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540-483-5113
Fax: 540-483-8013
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Staff Photo by Joel Turner:
Ruby and Galen Brubaker have received dozens of awards during the past six decades for their work in national, state and local organizations. A wall in their home is filled with certificates, plaques and other awards. |
Friday, November 6, 2009
By JOEL TURNER - Staff Writer
Ruby Brubaker's life story is best told in decades.
It is a life and a story of dedication, faith, work and love of rolling, open space and pasture land in western Franklin County.
She is described as the embodiment of the farmer's wife.
For more than eight decades, she has lived on a farm, first as a child, and then several miles away on a dairy farm for all of her adult life.
For more than six decades, she has been married to Galen Brubaker, a dairy farmer, in a marriage that has been marked by extraordinary love and dedication.
Her husband helped her recover from almost complete paralysis by polio nearly six decades ago by bathing her in hot water daily, and helping her with daily exercises for months.
For nearly five decades, she helped operate the couple's 430-acre dairy farm near Callaway with 150 Holstein cows.
For five decades, she has been mother to four daughters, who helped with the work of running a dairy farm.
Linda Boitnott, who has been active many years in the Franklin County and Virginia Farm Bureau, said Brubaker is the model farm wife.
Brubaker is a woman to be recognized for her achievements and contributions to her farm family and home, Farm Bureau, agriculture and community, Boitnott said.
For Brubaker, it has been an enjoyable and rewarding life as a farm wife despite some sadness, including the death in recent years of one of her four daughters.
She has helped with the dairy farm, served as treasurer and kept all of the farm's financial records, raised her daughters, served as a volunteer in several community organizations and remained active in the family's church, Antioch Church of the Brethren.
Both Ruby, who is 83, and Galen, who is 84, grew up on farms several miles apart in western Franklin County.
She attended the Boones Mill school, and he attended the Callaway school.
The couple was married in 1946, one year after the end of World War ll.
In 1949, the young couple bought the old Franklin County poor farm on Carolina Springs Road.
Poor farms were government-run farms in the 19th and early 20th century for the support and housing of dependent and needy persons, usually run by a county or city.
The Brubakers named their farm, Gale-Ru Dairy Farm, a creative combination of their first names.
The Gale-Ru Dairy Farm sign stood at the entrance to their farm nearly 50 years.
The sign was moved to the side of their garage after they sold their herd of Holstein cows and rented their farm.
The farm's stationery also had the Gale-Ru Dairy Farm name on it.
Ruby Brubaker and the couple's daughters helped with the dairy operations. The daughters were compensated for some of their work to help teach them responsibility and independence.
Running a dairy farm is a seven-day a week job with long hours in summer and winter.
Galen Brubaker would get up about 3:30 a. m. daily to prepare for the morning milking of the Holstein cows. Ruby would get up and cook breakfast for the family.
"Galen would come in after getting started with the milking, and eat breakfast with the girls. He always thought it was good to eat breakfast with them," Ruby said.
Besides all her work on the farm, she also served as treasurer of the Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHIA) in Franklin County for many years.
Ruby, who grew up in the 4-H club program as a youngster, also organized a 4-H clubs over the years. The couple's daughters were also active in 4-H work.
Ruby also participated in Home Demonstration Clubs and Virginia Extension Service programs.
Galen and Ruby were active in the Franklin County Farm Bureau during the years when they operated the dairy.
Galen was a board member of several national farm organizations, including the Federal Farm Credit, Southern States Cooperative and Cobank.
During the early years of operating the dairy farms, the Brubakers faced a severe challenge when Ruby had polio during the polio epidemic in the 1950s at the age of 27.
Her entire body was paralyzed except for her right arm. Galen helped Ruby recover from paralysis by giving her hot baths twice a day and helping her with daily physical exercises. She had several months of hot bath and physical therapy before she recovered from paralysis.
Ruby said her mother also helped care for her while she had polio.
"Without Galen and my mother, I'd still be lying there paralyzed," Ruby said. "Without them, I couldn't have made it."
After almost 50 years of milking at Gale-Ru Dairy, the Brubakers sold their herd of 150 Holstein cows and rented the dairy farm.
But they didn't want to give up the open space and panoramic views on their farm.
"I love this land, these views," Ruby said. "We didn't want to lose that and see subdivisions go up on the land. I couldn't stand the thought of looking at houses on the farm."
So the couple decided to preserve their farm by placing it in a conservation easement.
Under the easement, the Brubakers can keep the land for farming and timbering, sell it or leave it to their children and grandchildren.
The easements require forested buffers be maintained along streams, excluding livestock, to protect the water quality.
The Brubakers have received dozens of awards during the past six decades for their work in national, state and local organizations. They have a wall of certificates, plaques and other awards in their home.
In their eighth decade of life, both Brubakers still drive and remain active with their friends, children and grandchildren.
Ruby still cooks most of the couple's meals. They seldom go out to eat.
"I'd rather sit here and look at the fields while I'm eating than to go out to a restaurant," she said. |
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