Ruby Gonzales

 Memorial Mass for Ruby Gonzales will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, September 5, 2024 at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in Dolores. Inurnment will follow at Summit Ridge Cemetery. Rosary service will be held Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. at the church.

 Ruby was born August 27, 1931 in Dolores the daughter of Alexander Joseph and Pasqualita (Roybal) Vigil. She passed away on Tuesday, August 27, 2024 at her Dolores home at the age of 93.  Her father was the railroad foreman for the Rio Grande Southern Railroad and raised ten children. She was the third from the youngest. 

 Her husband Frank both graduated from Dolores High School. Frank was a surveying engineer for the Colorado Highway Department. They had three children, Frankie, Lisa, and Mickey. While the kids were in school, she worked for the Dolores School as a teacher’s aid for two years and in Cortez for one year. 

 After their children finished school, she had the privilege of working for Dr. Merritt in his medical office. It was at that time she was elected Mayor of Dolores. Ruby had a very good Board of Trustees who made her job easy. She Stated, “It was our job to see that the Town of Dolores was taken care of, and we got things done for the Town’s people.”

 Ruby’s greatest accomplishment while being mayor was to meet with dignitaries of the BLM out of Salt Lake City to take part in Getting the Anasazi Heritage Center built and dedicated. This was quite a huge project.

 When Dr. Merritt retired in 1991, Ruby stayed on at the medical office until 1992 and the retired from there after 22 years of service. 

 Ruby and Frank, then did lots of traveling throughout the United States and spent time going and watching grandchildren in sports and school functions.

They both worked at the Galloping Goose Historical Museum and Frank helped build the building and rebuild the Galloping Goose Number 5 along with others in the community. 

 After Frank passed away, Ruby doing and kept busy in the community. She was a member of the Dolores Rotary Club and was given a life-time membership to the Dolores Rotary Club. 

 For 17 years Ruby worked for the Dolores Community Center making the reservations for the people using the center. She was on the Dolores Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors for over 20 years and have been chosen Citizen of the year twice by the Chamber. She was the volunteer coordinator for the Dolores Visitor Center, lining up volunteer to man the Center during the summer. 

 She was President of the Dolores Seniors and involved with helping our seniors at the Dolores Senior Center. Ruby’s biggest and most rewarding thing was putting on the Dolores Community Center Christmas Bazaar every year. She did this for 25 years and enjoyed most of all in her older years.

 For many years, she organized getting vendors for Escalante Days and started the Harvest Festival event in Dolores. She later turned this over to others much younger. 

 Ruby and Frank started the first All-School Reunion back in the late 70s and it has been a tradition in Dolores every five years. They had lots of fun. 

 She was a life-long member of Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in Dolores and helped on all the events they had going. 

 Ruby enjoyed her life here in Dolores with her children and grandchildren and her many friends. She saw many changes in Dolores, some good and others not so good, but it is still her home, and she always did what she could.

 Ruby had a good and blessed life here in Dolores, which she always called home. 

  Surviving Ruby are her children, Frankie Gonzales (Debra) of Mesa, Ariz. and Lisa Tozer (Bruce) of McElmo Canyon, Colo.; and by seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Ruby was preceded in death by her parents; by her husband, Frank Gonzales; by her son, Michael Joseph “Mickey” Gonzales; and by her siblings, Nellie, Susie, Frank, Julian, Rebecca, Juanita, Rosie, Rudy, Alex, Joseph and Clara.

 A reception to follow after the service at the Dolores Community Center. A memorial fund has been established in Ruby's name at Dolores State Bank. Donations will be disbursed to causes that were near and dear to her heart.