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Ruddle
Forty-four years after I edited my high-school newspaper, a carefully sealed package arrived at my office at LSU, where I was the dean of the mass-communication school. Inside was a pristine copy of my last issue of the Red and Black newspaper along with equally well-preserved articles celebrating the paper written by two high-school journalism associations in 1964 and 1965.
Five years later, another carefully assembled package arrived with more memorabilia from the 1960s. But the real gems in both packages were meticulously handwritten notes from the sender, Mary Lee Ruddle, a long-time resident of Franklin, West Virginia, who was my high-school newspaper adviser and one of the inspirations for my 53-year career in journalism.
She wrote in the notes and mentioned in a phone call a few months ago that she was "so proud" of my accomplishments, ignoring the fact that she was 95 years old and that I am no kid at 75.
But that's how Miss Ruddle--to this day, none of us dares call her anything other than "Miss Ruddle"--was, an unrelenting coach who demanded high standards but, importantly, assured us that we could meet even her requirements. Her confidence was important for a geeky high-school boy.
Miss Ruddle died June 17 in Frederick, Maryland, at the age of 95. She taught English, journalism and related subjects at Northwood High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, for 27 years and at other schools for years. She returned to Franklin when she retired in 1989. She was born in nearby Ruddle, presumably named for her family.
After her death, her family told stories that might explain her refusal to lower her standards, even for students who were not at the top of the class. First, she was the valedictorian of the Franklin High School class of 1945. Second, she attended Davis & Elkins College, edited the school paper, graduated magna cum laude in 1950 and later received her master's degree in English from West Virginia University.
As her family wrote with understatement, she was "an avid student."
But I found the obstacles she overcame more telling. After teaching at Warm Springs, Virginia, she moved to Petersburg High School in Petersburg, West Virginia for five years. But it wasn't easy, her family wrote: "Since she did not know how to drive or own a car, the mail truck from Franklin would pick her up early in the morning, deliver her to Petersburg and pick her back up on its return from Cumberland, Maryland."
I have to wonder if that determination, and her desire to learn, led to her high standards, which dozens of former students commented on in social-media posts since her death. (Even now, I'm triple-checking every sentence. I wouldn't want a grammatical error in an article about Miss Ruddle.)
"She made me the editor I am today!" a 1983 Northwood graduate wrote. "I still think of her often and am grateful for her relentless commitment to proper grammar," another former student said in a post.
One former student was as impressed as I was with her determination to get to work without driving:
"I met Miss Ruddle in the fall of 1953, when I entered her English class as a sophomore at Petersburg High School. In those days, she rode the mail truck from Ruddle to Petersburg every morning and walked up the mile-long hill to the high school in all sorts of weather, before even beginning her 'official' workday. Yet the one thing that all of us....recall is how she literally bounced into the room, full of enthusiasm for that day's lesson."
It was her belief in us at a difficult age that I also keep coming back to. As one former student wrote, "Somehow, she made us all want to do well in her class."
Another proved the point with an anecdote: "Miss Ruddle was the best teacher I ever had. She was hard and challenged us every day. I'll never forget the day we got our final grade. She met privately with each student and when she met with me she said my average was a C but that I was just not a C student. So she gave me a B. I was thrilled. I went on to get a degree in journalism and am still writing."
As former student Jaime Banks told me, "she understood what individual students needed." I was the geeky teen-age boy who needed that confidence. Thanks, Miss Ruddle.
A funeral service will be conducted at 11 a.m. today at the Franklin Presbyterian Church. Interment will follow at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Franklin.
Jerry Ceppos spent 36 years in newsrooms. He is the former dean of LSU's Manship School of Mass Communication and still teaches there. He can be reached at jceppos@lsu.edu.