Ruth Anna Horn

     Ruth Anna Horn was born on 18 June 1918 in Lochridge, Brazoria County, Texas.¹ She was the daughter of William Lemuel Horn Jr. and Ruth Minerva Fairfield. She married Joe Underwood Munson, son of George Poindexter Munson Sr. and Louise Underwood, on 16 September 1935 at First Methodist Church, Angleton.² She died on 24 November 2008 in Angleton at age 90.³ Following services at Bethel Presbyterian Church, East Columbia, she was buried on 1 December 2008 in Old Columbia Cemetery, West Columbia.
     
     Ruth Anna was named for her mother and her great-grandaunt, Anna Fairfield Pevoto. She always said that she and her younger sister Pearl were born at Daddy O'Brian's near Lochridge, Daddy O'Brian being the man from whom her parents rented the house and farm. Living nearby was Ruth Anna's grandfather Ed Fairfield and his family. Lochridge, the closest town, was established in 1913 and was at one time a thriving little community west of Rosharon in northwest Brazoria County. Ruth Anna remembered when there was a gin, a blacksmith shop, grocery store, post office and school, but the town died in 1929. Ruth Anna lived all her life in Brazoria County, and appears there in the household of her parents as a two year old in the 1920 census , and as an eleven year old in the 1930 census.^4,5

     In February 1922 the Horns moved several miles to Sandy Point, a town of about 200 people (1925-post war population) located 17 miles northwest of Angleton in north central Brazoria County. There her father owned a grocery store and gas station, and was Postmaster. Their living quarters were in the same building. Faced with bankruptcy during the Great Depression, Bill Horn deserted the family when Ruth Anna was about thirteen years old.

     The Sandy Point school had only seven grades, so area children attended Angleton High School. Her brother Bill took room and board in Angleton during the school year, but there was bus service by the time Ruth Anna began high school. She often told the story of skipping a class and paying a quarter to go up in a barnstormer's plane. She said she didn't enjoy it at all because she worried the whole time she was going to miss the bus. She always regretted missing out on high school activities because she had to catch the bus as soon as school was out.

     The first six years of their marriage, Ruth Anna and Joe lived in Sandy Point. Though the country was in a deep depression when she and Joe married, Ruth Anna remembered the mid to late 1930s as some of the best years of her life. The young couple went to the movies and ate out once a week, and they paid a woman 25 cents a week to do their laundry. That included washing the clothes on a scrub board, hanging them to dry, ironing and folding! To help Joe's dad who had a heart condition, they moved to Bailey's Prairie on 28 February 1942. They lived with Joe's parents until 1944 when they moved to Angleton.

     In the writer's memory, Ruth Anna never worked. She kept a wonderful home for her family, and was perfectly devoted to her husband and children. Overall, she enjoyed good health, though poor eyesight was a problem most or all of her life. She was legally blind for many years. On 30 May 2002, she had a double bypass and aortic valve replacement surgery, followed by an uneventful recovery. Joe died in 1997 after almost 62 years of marriage. Ruth Anna lived alone in Angleton in the home they had built in 1972, until the fall of 2003 when she moved with George and Margie, her son and daughter-in-law, to their new home at Bailey's Prairie. Her health began to decline several years previous to her death, but her mind was sharp almost to the end. With her when she passed away were George and Margie, her granddaughter, Kelly Keeble, and great-granddaughters, Sara and Kaydee Keeble.³