Ruthann (nee:Thomas) Yater, 95, formerly of Kingman and Veedersburg, passed away April 26, 2024, at Wellbrooke of Crawfordsville.
Ruthann was born Dec. 10, 1928, at Wallace, to Joseph Bondurant and Beulah Margarite (nee:Davis) Thomas and was the youngest of their three children. She attended school first at Wallace then Grange Corner and graduated from Washington Township High School in Marshall; class of 1946. Her first job was as a “Key punch” operator in Danville, Illinois near the end of World War II for which she rode a public bus to and from work daily.
Ruthann married James Carroll (J.C.) Yater on June 6, 1947, and they lived in Rockville for the first five years of their marriage. During that time, she worked as a presser in a dry cleaner and they operated a potato chip company; making, selling and delivering their product to stores in local towns while J.C. worked as a mechanic. In 1952 they moved to Jackson Township, Fountain County, near where they were both born and in 1955, they started the J.C. Yater Garage. They lived and raised their family there, and in time their son J.B. joined his father in the business of mechanical repair.
For 10 years they also raised and sold strawberries to grocery stores in Kingman and Danville, Illinois and to the public straight out of the patch, which was between the house and the business. Ruthann was an “I can get it done” kind of gal, be it learning construction to build a “fruit room” in the basement to store home grown and home canned fruits and vegetables for the family meals to rewiring the old Electrolux sweeper because it had always been the best one made.
Ruthann’s final full-time employment was as a gate attendant at the Turkey Run State Park Camp Ground from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. She then worked on an at-need basis as a funeral attendant/greeter for her brother John at Thomas Funeral Home in Waynetown and then for her daughter when it became Shoemaker Funeral Home. She was active in the Republican Party of Fountain County for many years and the Indiana State Republican Women’s Club.
Through the decades Ruthann and J.C. stayed close friends with the other members and their wives of the Army Rangers he served with during World War II. They traveled around the United States for the official Ranger Reunions and often gathered informally at each other’s homes with their entire families. From the 1990s and up to 2017 she enjoyed spending part of the winter in Venice, Florida where her mother, her brother John Thomas, and his wife Maurene also wintered.
J.C. passed away Sept. 9, 1998, leaving his son to continue the business. With concession to aging Ruthann bought a home and moved to Veedersburg the spring of 2010 and moved to Whitlock Assisted living the fall of 2019. She had been a resident of Wellbrooke since September 2023.
Family members who preceded her in death are her husband; parents; twin brothers, Joe and John Thomas; step-son, Robert D. Yater; grandsons, Bradley E. Yater, James R. Shoemaker and David L. Shoemaker; great-grandson Dennis McQueary; and son-in-law Leroy Blankenbeckler.
She is survived by her children, Teresa Blankenbeckler, Veedersburg, Nancy (Joseph) Shoemaker, Crawfordsville, and J.B. (Joyce) Yater, Kingman; grandchildren, Jennifer (Tony) Karushis, Libby (Brian) Roberts-Murphy, Amber Norman, Amanda (Travis) Moffitt, Mikael (Trey) Fox, Wade Yater, Donna (Greg) Gilpin, Debbie (Dwayne) Belongia, Tim Yater, Terry Lee Blankenbeckler, Sheri Conrad and Todd Blankenbeckler; 21 great-grandchildren; 18 great-great-grandchildren; and nieces, Joanetta Hendel, Westfield and Pauline (Terry) McMasters, Bloomingdale.
Visitation will be at Sanders Funeral Care, 203 S. First St., Kingman, on Wednesday, May 1 from noon until the time of funeral service at 2 p.m. Burial will follow at Wolf Creek Cemetery. Memorial donations may be made to the Wolf Creek Cemetery Association, 2563 E. Limepit Road, Kingman, IN 47952.
Share memories and condolences online at www.SandersFuneralCare.com.
