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Ruth Davis Hill Ruth Hill was born in a homestead
farmhouse near Syracuse, Nebraska on October 27, 1906. Her mother
had moved to America from Sweden as a young girl. Her father had
traveled by covered wagon to Nebraska, and helped his parents build
the house in which Ruth was born. Mrs. Hill died in 1996. She went to country school for the
first ten grades. Her parents wanted her to have the best education
possible so they sent her to Lincoln to finish high school. She
remained in Lincoln to attend the University of Nebraska. In 1929,
she married Roscoe Hill and through the years helped him build one
of the largest poultry businesses in Nebraska. In 1944, she was
elected to the Board of Education for Lincoln Public Schools...a
position she held for 18 years in addition to her duties to her
three children, her husband, and the family business.
Mrs. Hill died in 1996 at the age of 90.
In 1974, the following appeared in the Lincoln Journal newspaper: "The Lincoln Board of Education's decision to name the district's new Southwood neighborhood school after Mrs. Ruth D. Hill simply couldn't have been more intelligent, more perceptive, more deserving. Mrs. Hill was a board member for an 18-year period during which the Lincoln school district was faced with prodigious problems. It was a period when the school system had to catch up with capital improvements deferred because of World War II while simultaneously confronted by unprecedented enrollment growth. In those years Mrs. Hill was nothing if not dedicated- in the best sense of that word-to the education and welfare of the students. If her interest was personal, it was never petty. She also joined in the pioneering work done and financed by the Lincoln school district in educational television programming... Praise to the Lincoln Board of Education then, appropriately honoring a great and wise human being." Lincoln Journal
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As the oldest of seven children, Ruth had to help look after her
younger brothers and sisters, in addition to milking cows, keeping
the wood box filled, washing clothes by hand, and performing other
chores. When her mother was away tending a sick neighbor or lobbying
at the Nebraska state legislature in Lincoln, Ruth was in charge
of the house.
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(c) 1999 Hill
Elementary, Lincoln Public Schools, Lincoln, Nebraska |