RUBY STEELY

By: JOAN DAVIS, President, Love One on One

Ruby was born on a farm south of the Northeast corner of 101st & Yale, on March 26, 1920, to Ancil & Hattie Steely. She attended school through the 6th grade at Haikey School (a one-room school on the SW corner of 101st & Yale), transferring to Jenks High School and graduating in 1940.

She has 2 sisters, Uneva Murphree, who has been a church pianist/organist here at NewSpring for many years, and Flora, who died in 1980. She has four brothers, Roy of Duncan, Oklahoma, Charles of Pocatello, Idaho, a twin brother, Robert, who lives in Tulsa, and Tom, Katie Steely's husband, passed away in 1977.

Raised Methodist & Baptist, her parents became Spirit-filled in the early 1900s. Ruby accepted Christ when she was about 10. Different ministers would come to Haikey School and hold meetings. Her aunt from Arkansas would spend the summer holding meetings. They had Nazarene and Pentecostal preachers. She also says her great-grandfather was a circuit-riding preacher.

In 1940, she married Elvie Anglin, and they had 5 children, Evelyn Turner, Louie, Glenna Rusher, Dewey and our own Brenda Baker. She has 9 grandchildren, 7 great-grandchildren, and several step-grandchildren. Elvie was very active in church, being youth leader, song leader, & Sunday School superintendent. He passed away in 1963. She married Archie Griffin in 1970, and he passed away in 1996.

Ruby says when each of her children became 2 weeks old, she took them to church then, and every time the doors were open from then on. She says she raised her children according to the Bible and to the best of her ability to instill Christian values in them.

Ruby was a member of First Assembly of God in Jenks. The first building she remembers going to was on West Apache about a block from the railroad tracks (where Mill Creek Lumber is now). It was an independent church then. Bro. Penuel became the pastor and he brought it into the Assemblies of God. In the late 40's, the church was moved to the location on Main Street. In 1955, Elvie & Ruby were some of the founding members of Airview Tabernacle Assembly of God. She has attended First Assembly, Airview and NewSpring through all of their beginnings. She says she's excited about the way NewSpring is moving forward, and all the new and fresh ideas that are being implemented. "I can tell that the church is moving onward and upward. I'm all for the new changes and the new building!! I can't wait!"

When asked what advice she would give our young mothers here at NewSpring, her reply was "Be sure to keep your children in church. Spend as much time as possible with your kids. They grow up so quickly."