Ruby Faye Ausbrooks

Ruby Faye Ausbrooks of Arkoma, Okla., passed away Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010, in Fort Smith, Ark., surrounded by her family. She died at age 74 after a long illness with multiple myeloma. She is survived by her beloved husband, Vernon Julian Ausbrooks; a sister, Sharon Bullock Russell, of Arkoma; a sister, Elenora Lee, of Minden, La.; and four sons, William Harrison "Bill" Watkins Jr., of Frederick, Colo.; Donald James Watkins Asher, of Gerlach, Nev.; Clyde Anthony Watkins of Ferndale, Wash.; and Joel Vernon Ausbrooks, of Fort Smith, Ark., and six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, Gladys Undine Asher and Elmer Otto Asher, brother Clyde Ulon Asher, all of Stillwell, Okla., and sister Pearl June Rodgers, of Tulsa, Okla. She was born Ruby Faye Asher on Nov. 14, 1936, in Muskogee, Okla. She attended Fort Smith High School. She quit high school at 16 because, as she said, "That's what people in my family did." She married William Harrison "Bill" Watkins, and lived in Jacksonville, Ark. At the age of 33, divorced, with three young boys to tend to, she decided to go to college. She started at University of Central Arkansas in Conway and graduated in three and a half years with a bachelor's degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She continued her schooling until she completed the doctorate, at age 58, from the University of Arkansas. She met the love of her life at age 34 in Conway, Vernon Ausbrooks, the first man she'd ever met with more books than she had. They ran the House of Books Coffee Shop in Conway, before she went on to pursue a teaching career at the Wrightsville Correctional Unit, Benton County Alternative School (BCAS), and at several campuses of the University of Arkansas. She designed the curriculum at BCAS which achieved considerable success. Testing showed her students attained two years of advancement for each year of attendance. She ended her career as a substitute teacher and volunteer tutor at Gerlach High School in Gerlach, Nev., for which she won a Jefferson Award for community service. When she moved to Nevada in her late sixties, the state of Nevada refused to approve her teacher's license because her physics class from the University of Arkansas was named "The Physical World" instead of "Physics 101," so Dr. Ausbrooks took and passed freshman physics, again, at age 69. She was not going to live in any state without a valid teaching license. She published a novel, Sex Behind the Drinking Fountain, about a teacher facing a difficult summer school assignment. She was a member of Toastmasters, and a member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Van Buren, Ark., where Father Kevin's ministry was a great comfort to her. Ruby Faye Ausbrooks was a self-made woman. Services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2010 at Ocker-Putman Funeral Home Chapel in Fort Smith, Ark. Online condolences may be made at www.ockerputmanfuneralhome.com.