Joyce Castle

Ruth started her schooling in Mulberry IN, spent most of 4th grade in St. Louis MO, and finally entered the Falls City school system where she graduated in 1926. Falls City was only nine miles from a little town named Rulo NE which was on the Missouri River. The young adults of Falls City would often travel to the river to play and picnic on its banks. Ruth became acquainted with a young man named Norman Ocamb. She and Norman became a couple and on October 2, 1926 they traveled to Council Bluffs IA and were married. Their first home was in Rulo where Norman's family was involved in several businesses. His father, George Ocamb, and his uncles Grant Ocamb and George Ward (husband of Emma Ocamb) all three had mercantile stores. Norman, however, went to work in his grandfather Gottleib Dietsch's Furniture and Coffin business. Ruth and Norman (known as "Shorty" by family and friends) lived in the back of the furniture store. That is where they lived when they became the parents of their daughter, Norma Lee. The baby's first bed was a dresser drawer in those back quarters with the coffins clearly in view! In 1932, a fire destroyed the general store owned by Norman's father, George Ocamb. He had been widowed nine years earlier and decided not to rebuild the business. George, Norman, Ruth and Norma Lee all moved to North Platte, Nebraska where they purchased and ran the Whitehouse Grocery. They continued running that family business until 1950 when they sold the business and moved to Englewood, Colorado. Norman was semi-retired but worked as a roofer with a construction company for a while. Ruth was very artistic and she was always busy with one project or another. She was a perfect homemaker and was a wonderful cook. Having spent much of her adult life in the grocery store business, she certainly knew her way around food. Her kitchen always smelled heavenly - she made a barbeque sauce that could have been marketed and she canned the most wonderful Colorado peaches. At Christmas time, she always baked dozens of cookies and made wonderful fudge and divinity candy. One of my favorite memories was that she always had Royal Crown Cola waiting for my sister and I when we came to visit, and she served it to us in icy copper mugs! She was always taking classes to improve her skills in cooking, gardening, sewing, etc. She loved to garden, and, like her mother Lavina, she belonged to a garden club. Flowers edged their entire yard and they had a wonderful vegetable garden as well. She would often share starts of plants with her friends and relatives. If you looked out their living room picture window in Englewood, you would see a wonderful view of the Rocky Mountains with her lovely rose garden in the foreground. Ruth was also an accomplished seamstress. She sewed many of her own clothes and sewed for my sister and me as well. She sewed clothes, jackets, curtains, tablecloths and napkins. She also could knit and crochet, and she was always knitting sweaters, pin cushions and slippers for all of her family members. My sister and I would bring our baby dolls when we came to visit and she would crochet little sweaters and booties for them as well. She had wonderful taste when it came to decorating her home and she was a great collector of antiques. She loved to shop at yard sales and at the Goodwill stores and she was always spotting a great collectible for a bargain price. She especially loved "knickknacks" and other china pieces and at one point she took a series of classes in ceramics. She made lovely pieces for all of her family members. Perhaps that's when she began developing her talent for painting, as she soon graduated from painting ceramics to oil painting. Again, she took numerous classes and became very, very good. Although she painted a variety of subjects, she had a real talent for painting people, and she painted countless portraits from photographs for friends and relatives. She especially loved painting Native American and Amish people. Ruth belonged to a number of art clubs in both Englewood and Windsor Colorado. She participated in many art shows and sold many of her pieces. She and her good friend Maryanna Yauk co-founded the Windsor Art League.

George Ocamb of North Platte, Lincoln County, Nebraska was born on April 14, 1874, and died at age 92 years old in February 1967.

Norman grew up and received his education through about the Fifth Grade in Rulo, Nebraska. At 16, he was engaged in farming on the family farm. on October 2nd, 1926 he married Ruth Marie sharp in Council Bluffs, Iowa. In about 1935 the family moved to north Platte where they owned and operated a neighborhood grocery store in partnership with his father, George Ocamb, called the White House Market. The couple moved to 1101 East Girard, Englewood CO in 1950 and to Windsor CO in 1972.