Ruth Margaret Roubidoux Mangel

RUTH MARGARET ROUBIDOUX MANGEL Ruth Margaret Roubidoux Mangel was born the daughter of James Drury and Mary Elizabeth (Murphy) Lamb on May 21, 1913 at the family home in McElmo Canyon, Colo. She passed away at Southwest Memorial Hospital on February 8, 2011 at the age of 97. Ruth’s history in the Cortez area is long and rich beginning as the daughter of James Lamb a pioneer homesteading in McElmo Canyon in the 1860s. She received her teaching degree from Fort Lewis College in Hesperus and Western State in Gunnison, Colo. Ruth taught at the Bear Creek School House which was up the Dolores River Canyon, and on the Navajo Reservation, at Battlerock School, and finally first grade at Downey School in Cortez for 25 years. Ruth was a founding member of the Montezuma Valley Presbyterian Church and her last year she enjoyed the Silver Sneaker program at the Cortez Recreation Center. In addition to her love of children and animals, Ruth enjoyed time spent knitting and playing Bridge. She enjoyed the three years she spent at Vista Mesa Retirement Center and her interaction with the staff and residents. Ruth was quoted as saying “she found a ‘new gear’ in her life at the age of 95”. Surviving Ruth are her son, James N. Roubidoux and wife, Kate of Corrales, N.M.; and numerous nieces and nephews. Ruth was preceded in death by her parents, James and Mary Lamb; her husbands, Newton Roubidoux in 1973 and Leslie Mangel; and by her siblings, Charlie Stiles, Bessie Stiles Hinton, Edna Stiles Casey, Johnny Lamb and Dorothy Lamb Smith. Cremation will take place and a Celebration of Life will occur later this spring. The time and location will be announced in the Cortez Journal and on Ertel Funeral Home’s web page.