Ruth L. MacLeod, age 93, of Sheldon, passed away on Thursday, November 21st, at Sanford Sheldon Medical Center in Sheldon. Her graveside Service will be on Tuesday, December 3rd, at 1:30 p.m. at the Sheridan Township Cemetery in Boyden, with Pastor Brian Schafer officiating.
There will be no Visitation.
The Vander Ploeg Funeral Home of Sheldon is in charge of the arrangements.
Ruth Lavonne MacLeod was born on April 4, 1931, on the family farm near Boyden, Iowa, the daughter of George and Matie (Rohlfs) Horn. Her early education was 8 years in the rural school across the road from the farm. Ruth graduated from Boyden High School in 1948. After a summer and a year of college at Westmar in LeMars and Northwester Junior College in Orange City she taught rural school for four and a half years. She completed her college education at Tarkio College in Tarkio, Missouri before attending Pittsburgh Xenia Seminary in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for one and a half years. For two years Ruth was an assistant in Christian Education at the Wilkinsburg Presbyterian Church. Between these two years she was married on August 8, 1959, to Kenneth (Ken) MacLeod who was in college and seminary at the same time as Ruth. The wedding was in Ashton, Iowa Presbyterian Church because Ruth’s home church, the Boyden, Iowa United Presbyterian Church had burned down that spring. She had been baptized in that church and returned her membership there when they retired in Sheldon, Iowa in 1999. After Ken graduated from seminary in 1960, he and Ruth shared a Christian Education position at the Bloomfield Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield, New Jersey. Their son Philip was born there in 1961. In December 1961, they moved to Traer, Iowa where Ken served the United Presbyterian Church. Their daughter Cheryl was born there in 1963. Ruth went along with Ken as he served other Presbyterian Churches in Iowa. She was active in church schools and women’s organizations wherever they were as well as volunteer work in the communities. Churches served were Kenwood Park in Cedar Rapids, Storm Lake, Knoxville, and Lake Park. During their twenty-five years in Knoxville, Ruth became a childcare worker. She worked at Little People’s Playhouse for four years until it closed suddenly for financial reasons. Five children from the Playhouse became the start of her in-home childcare. Through the ten years of her in home care there was a constant change as some moved and others started school.
Travel and Genealogy were Ruth’s most enjoyable interest along with watching eagles on the computer in her later years. Her travels included 49 states (Not Hawaii). Many trips were to New Jersey where Ken’s family lived. Foreign travels were in Switzerland, Canada, Scotland, England, Singapore, Australia, Spain and France. The interest in genealogy resulted in many visits to the Mormon Genealogy Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. These visits were often made on the way to visit family and friends in western states. Ken passed way in July of 2005. Ruth continued to live in their home until January 2015 when she moved to the Christian Retirement Home in Sheldon, Iowa.
Survivors include her son, Philip MacLeod of Atlanta, Georgia; daughter-in-law, Susan Si of Corvallis, Oregon; sister-in-law, Gen Horn; nephew, Larry Horn and his wife, Denise of Phoenix, Arizona.
Those who precede her in death were her parents, her husband, Kenneth, daughter, Cherly and a brother-in-law, Earl Horn.
