Ruth Nelle (Bullock) Hughes, 85, born in Madison County, Arkansas, to Samuel Henry and Bertha Ellen (Ducker) Bullock, passed away peacefully on Saturday, June 8, 2019, in Sacramento, Calif.
Ruth Nelle was born on a farm near Clify, Ark., where the family operated a mill. She attended lessons at the one-room, eight-grade, California Schoolhouse.
The family relocated to Eureka Springs about 1943. Ruth Nelle graduated from Eureka Springs High School in 1950 at age 16, two years ahead of her peers. She attended Drury College in Springfield, Mo., for a time before she married her husband, Billy Thomas.
After the birth of their son, the three moved several times across Arkansas then across the country to Reno, Nev., where the family grew with the birth of two daughters. Ruth and her still growing family settled in Sacramento, Calif., in the early 1960s where one more daughter was born.
She enjoyed her morning coffee and newspaper, gardening, and was a very good baker. She was proud of being a breast cancer survivor.
Ruth and Tom attended the Florin United Methodist Church, were charter members of the Sacramento Jaguar Club, participated in the Civil War Roundtable and genealogy clubs where they’d made numerous friends.
Surviving are her husband of 68 years, Billy Thomas, daughters, Diana (Len) Bachman, Elaine (Neil) Wilson, and Mary (Paul) Gudeman, and daughter-in-law, Jackie Hughes. She was grandmother to six grandchildren and two great-grandsons.
Ruth Nelle was preceded in death by her parents, Samuel and Bertha Bullock; brothers, James M. and Samuel Vance Bullock; sister, Amy Caple and son, Samuel Thomas Hughes.
Services are on Sunday, June 23, 2019, at 10 a.m. at East Lawn Memorial Park Chapel, 4300 Folsom Blvd., Sacramento, CA 95819. Interment will follow at that location. Online tributes and condolences may be sent to the family at eastlawn.com.