We love you, Radar Ruby
This week I attended the home-going service of a true Pilot Point legend, Mrs. Ruby Ray.
A lifelong resident of Pilot Point, her dedication to our community was and is unparalleled.
Her friends called her “Ruby,” and her family called her “Mom” or “Granny.' But to my generation, as kids growing up here in the 1980s, she was affectionately known as “Radar Ruby.”
We entered high school during Ruby’s long tenure with Pilot Point ISD, and we quickly learned how she earned her nickname.
She was everywhere, and she didn’t miss a thing.
When we bought football tickets, she sold them.
At the end of the lunch line, she took our money. (Try slipping past her with an extra Mrs. Baird’s cherry pie in your hand and you just might live to regret it.)
And who was the high school librarian? None other than Radar Ruby.
In those days, we thought we could avoid a test by playing hooky and then cheating as we made it up in the library the next day.
But Radar Ruby heard every whisper and seemed to have some secret way of knowing our every ill intention.
After school each day, Radar Ruby drove past our houses to deliver our parents’ daily copies of the Denton Record-Chronicle.
She was, indeed, everywhere. Back then I didn’t have the maturity to appreciate a strong work ethic like Ruby’s, nor did I understand the sacrifices such diligent community service demands.
I do now, of course, and I’m sad to see her go because she represents a spirit of servanthood that seems to fade as the years pass, with each generation becoming a little less like the one before it.
Even now, Radar Ruby is everywhere.
She lives on not just in the hearts of those who loved her, but her legacy is woven into the very fabric of this community.
I’m thankful I grew up in Ruby Ray’s Pilot Point, and I cherish the stories I can tell because I knew her.
I’m blessed to know her children, who are living out her legacy of selfless service to our community.
May Ruby’s lifetime of devotion inspire us to serve our community as fervently as she did.
May she rest in peace and rise in glory. Amy Lanier Pilot Point
