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Mrs. Ruth May Fox, Utah’s oldest resident at 104, died Saturday at 5:45 a.m. She had been ill with the flu for several days. Death came to the remarkable Utah pioneer at the home of a daughter, Mrs. George W. MacKay, 1022-1st Ave., where Mrs. Fox resided. She has 290 living descendants. Mrs. Fox was a woman who made the most of every moment of her 104 years. Her church and civic accomplishments were countless. A year ago February, at the 103, she flew to California to attend the golden wedding anniversary of her son and daughter-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. H.L. Fox, Los Angeles.
She was named president of the Young Women’s Mutual Improvement Assn. at the age of 75 and while still serving in this capacity at the age of 80 she flew over the Hawaiian Islands. Mrs. Fox was born Nov. 16, 1853, in Wiltshire, England, long before automobiles, radio, and television were even dreamed of. And she lived to see the atomic age and the beginnings of flight into space. She was on of Utah’s pre-railroad pioneers. As a girl of 13 she walked most of the way across the plains, coming with her father, James May, and stepmother in 1867. Her mother Mary Ann May, died when Mrs. Fox was 16 months old.
Before coming to America, she traveled from town to town in England with her father, who was a traveling elder for the Church. They later settled in Yorkshire and when Ruth was 12, her father came to America. She followed a few months later with an English woman who later became her step-mother. The family first settled in Philadelphia, then came to Utah. Shortly after their arrival in Salt Lake Valley, the family attended dedicatory services for the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Mrs. Fox’s first home here was at President Brigham Young’s woolen mill in Parley’s Canyon and she helped her father in the factory.
She attended schools in England and after coming to Utah she went to a small school in the valley for six months, attended Morgan College and took English and correspondence classes at the university. On May 9, 1873, she married Jesse W. Fox, the surveyor who platted Salt Lake City. They had 12 children. Eight of them still are living. Mr. Fox died in December, 1928. Mrs. Fox began her long years of service to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a Sunday School teacher in the Fourteenth Ward. She served in the Primary Assn. of her ward for 19 years and served as president of the ward YWMIA from 1895 until 1904. The following year she was appointed to the general presidency of the YWMIA and remained there until her retirement in 1937, after serving the last eight years as president.
All during her active busy years, her motto was “Carry On,” and that, too, was the title of the rally song she wrote for the MIA. In addition to her extensive Church work, she served 31 years with the American Red Cross and 12 with the Travelers’ Aid Society. She was long a leader of the National Council of Women, and in her younger days she was active in women’s politics. She also served many years as a guide on Temple Square. At the age of 96 she fell and broke her hip, but with her indomitable spirit, she was up and walking again by her 97th birthday. When blindness threatened at the age of 90, Mrs. Fox learned to read Braille. Fortunately, she retained partial eyesight to the last, although in her later years she did study by means of “talking books.” She received congratulations and best wishes from across the nation when she celebrated her 100th birthday in 1953. She was honored by the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce for her service to youth and by the YWMIA. Earlier in the year, Mrs. Fox was the first woman to be honored by Sons of Utah Pioneers for her civic and Church Achievements.
On her 101st birthday, still spry and alert, she presented a panel of photographs depicting her life to the women’s dormitory on Brigham Young University campus which bears her name – Ruth May Fox Hall. She worked for women’s suffrage in her early days and continued to vote at every election well past her 100th year. At 102 Mrs. Fox was honored guest on a television program depicting her life story at 103 she was named honorary Dairy Princess of Utah. At her 104th birthday last November she attended two parties in her honor. Survivors include four sons and four daughters: George J. Fox, H. Lester Fox and Mrs. Edwin (Beryl) Evenson, all of Los Angeles, Calif; Leonard Grant Fox, Frank H. Fox, Mrs. A.Y. (Ruth) Taylor, Mrs. Vida Fox Clawson, and Mrs. George W. (Florence) MacKay, all of Salt Lake City. Her grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren number 282. Also surviving is a half-sister, Mrs. Edna May Irvine, Bell, California. [1]
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Event Type: Birth Registration Registration Quarter: Oct-Nov-Dec Registration Year: 1853 Registration District: Westbury County: Wiltshire Event Place: Westbury, Wiltshire, England Mother's Maiden Name (not available before 1911 Q3): Volume: 5A Page: 120 Line Number: 78 Citing this Record: "England and Wales Birth Registration Index, 1837-2008," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2NCH-TYT : accessed 1 September 2015), Ruth May, 1853; from "England & Wales Births, 1837-2006," database, findmypast (http://www.findmypast.com : 2012); citing Birth Registration, Westbury, Wiltshire, England, citing General Register Office, Southport, England.
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Ruth is 23 degrees from Herbert Adair, 19 degrees from Richard Adams, 18 degrees from Mel Blanc, 22 degrees from Dick Bruna, 20 degrees from Bunny DeBarge, 30 degrees from Peter Dinklage, 21 degrees from Sam Edwards, 17 degrees from Ginnifer Goodwin, 22 degrees from Marty Krofft, 16 degrees from Junius Matthews, 14 degrees from Rachel Mellon and 19 degrees from Harold Warstler on our single family tree. Login to find your connection.