Ruth F. (Clark) James

1929 – 2022

Artist – Genealogist – Educator – Matriarch

Ruth Frances (Clark) James, 93, passed away in Cottonwood, Arizona on March 23, 2022.

She was born at 8:30 PM on the 18th day of October 1929 in a farmhouse in Hotchkiss, Rodgers Mesa, Colorado. Ruth was the daughter of Isaac Calvin Clark who was born in Crested Butte, Colorado in 1894. Her mother was Nina Victoria Kurts who was born in Tescott, Kansas in 1896.

Ruth was preceded in death by her husband of 73 years, Preston William James and two brothers: Milton Ramsey Clark, born in 1920, and Robert Findley Clark, born in 1922, both in Sommerset, Colorado.

Ruth moved to Clarkdale, Arizona in 1931. Ruth’s mother had a sister, Murley Mazza, that lived in Clarkdale and informed her parents that there were jobs available during the depression. Her dad went to work for the Miller Wholesale Company.

Ruth went to grade school and high school Clemenceau/Jerome and participated in the Drum and Bugle Corps and was a member of the Glee Club. She was in the first graduating class of Clemenceau High School. During her senior year in High School, she worked as a secretary for K. Norton, a lawyer in Cottonwood.

Upon graduation she met her husband to be, Preston W. James, who had recently been honorably discharged from the US Navy.

Ruth and Preston married in Cottonwood, Arizona on July 3, 1948, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Preston…