Ada Hawkins Schruben

Ada Mae Mays was born on a farm in Furnace County, Nebraska, near the town of Wilsonville on October 7, 1916. Ada was the oldest of eight children born to Charles Owen Mays and Mable Blanche Sullivan Mays. At the age of three months Ada moved with her parents to a farm in Rawlins County, Kansas two miles south of Beardsley, Kansas. Ada attended eight years at the Beardsley Grade School, and then attended high school at McDonald, then Atwood, and graduated from Rexford High School in 1934.

On October 22, 1934 Ada was married in Goodland, Kansas to Delbert Vernice Hawkins, who also grew up on a farm in the same Rawlins County, Middle Beaver Creek community. Delbert and Ada lived on the Hawkins family farm with his parents until his parents moved to Atwood. Delbert and Ada continued the wheat farming and cattle ranch, raising registered Polled Hereford Cattle. The young couple helped to care for Ada’s younger siblings who were left motherless in the fall of 1933 when her mother died in childbirth, and orphaned when her father died in 1939. Beginning in 1940 with the birth of Larry Dale, this union was blessed with five children. Richard Delbert was born in 1942; Gordon Russel in 1944; Janis Ada in 1946; and Ardis Janette in 1948.

Ada was an active partner with Delbert in the farm-ranch operation, and also sold Avon in the community for several years. In August 1962, with the three boys away from home (Larry had completed college, Rich and Gordon were attending college), Delbert and Ada moved, with their daughters to Atwood, Kansas, renting the farm to Ada’s brother, Dean Mays.

Ada attended Sunday School and Church as a child in the Beardsley school house and was baptized in the creek on her family farm. On July 25, 1955 she became a member of the First Christian Church in Atwood, Kansas where she was an active member for the remainder of her life, serving as Deaconess for many years. Ada was the first Deaconess to be given the Emeritus status in The First Christian Church of Atwood.

From 1956 until she reached a time when attendance was too difficult due to the infirmities of age, Ada was an active member (past Noble Grand) of the local Rebekah Lodge #331. Her membership and support continued until her death.

Ada was a member of the Mayflower Society and the Daughters of the American Revolution through the heritage of her mother’s Hamilton ancestry.
Ada’s husband, Delbert, died April 29,1970. On June 10, 1979 Ada was married in Atwood, Kansas to Maurice E. Schruben of Whittier, California. They moved to Maurice’s childhood home, Hoxie, Kansas. Maurice died May 16, 1991.

Ada enjoyed residence in the Good Samaritan Home in Atwood, Kansas for over eight years prior to her death. A life of service was here consummated, where she served her family of Good Samaritan residents and staff with an ever-present smile and positive, uplifting attitude, even as the effects of age took a toll on her abilities and left the aches and pains of infirmity. She enjoyed the activities provided by the residence, especially playing cards and bingo. Ada loved visiting with life-long friends and family, and finally, during her advanced age, when friends and family had passed before, she enjoyed the association with the descendents of many life-long friends and family.

Ada has received a lifetime of wonderful experiences and memories from the Hawkins family farm and the nearby Mays family farm. She leaves this life content in the knowledge that the legacy continues through the 4th generation. The son of Gordon and Edna (who live in retirement on the Hawkins Farm West), Delbert Joseph Hawkins and wife Kristi (living on the Hawkins Farm East), are assisted in the Hawkins farming operation by their three daughters. The Mays family farm, of Ada’s childhood, continues in the family under the ownership of Richard and Kay Hawkins. This land is also included in the farming operation of Del and Kristi Hawkins and girls. Ada and all of her family have enjoyed many years and several generations of work, pleasure and memorable family gatherings on these properties in the beautiful Middle Beaver Valley between Atwood and McDonald, Kansas.

She was preceded in death by her parents; husbands, Delbert V. Hawkins and Maurice E. Schruben; brothers, Owen, Dean and Delbert Mays; sisters, Elma Hay, Blanche Ballard and Bessie Hadley and son-in-law Ronald D. Stark.

She is survived by her sons, Larry Dale (Daphne) Hawkins, Sweet Springs, MO, Richard Delbert (Kay) Hawkins, Colby, KS, Gordon Russel (Edna) Hawkins, Atwood, KS; daughters, Janis Ada (Gordon) Reynolds, Branson, MO and Ardis Janette Stark, Atwood, KS; beloved sister Elsie Lea Bryan, Atwood, KS; twelve grandchildren and 32 great grandchildren.

Visitation will be 3-7:00 p.m. Thursday, January 9, 2014 at Baalmann Mortuary, Atwood. Funeral Service will be 10:00 a.m. Friday, January 10, 2014 at the First Christian Church, Atwood with burial to follow in Fairview Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to Atwood Good Samaritan Center, Beardsley Beavers 4-H Club or First Christian Church elevator fund in care of Baalmann Mortuary, 109 N 2nd St, Atwood, KS 67730. Online condolences: www.baalmannmortuary.com