The Descendants
Of
Courtney Smith Bryant
WORKING DRAFT
Last Change: 8 April 2017
Stephen Bryant
- Gen 1 in America
Abigail (Bryant)
Bryant - Gen 2
John Bryant -
Gen 2 (immigrant)
Samuel Bryant -
Gen 3
Nathaniel Bryant
I - Gen 4
Nathaniel
Bryant II - Gen 5
Nathaniel Bryant III - Gen 6
Rodman Bryant - Gen 7
Orris
Willoughby Bryant - Gen 8
Courtney Smith Bryant - Gen 9
Maud
Elise (Reynolds) Bryant - Gen 9
Ruth Frances
(Bryant) Rubright (1922
- 2011)
Descendant # 6
|
1. Ruth’s
parents: Courtney Smith and Maud Elise
(Reynolds) Bryant
2. Ruth’s
birth: 20 January 1922 at her parents’ residence on Route 12 just outside
the Village of Greene, Chenango County, New York.
Ruth's death: Monday, 1 August 2011 at
home in Wernersville, Berks County, Pennsylvania; memorial service Thursday, 4
August at St. John's (Hain's) United Church of
Christ, Wernersille; cremated remains interred in
cemetery adjacent to church. Ruth and
George were in bed sleeping when George was awakened by a sound Ruth made, but
he could not resuscitate her. She had
been in poor health for more than a year; in and out of nursing and medical
facilities and, on one occasion, collapsing at home with no heart beat for a
brief period before George was able to bring her back to life.
3. Ruth’s formal education:
From |
To |
School Name, Location, Diploma/Degree |
1927 |
1933 |
Greene Elementary School,
Greene, Chenango County, New York. |
1933 |
1939 |
Greene High School, Greene,
Chenango County, New York; graduated. |
1939 |
1940 |
Greene High School, Greene,
Chenango County, New York; extra courses. |
1940 |
1942 |
Dickinson College,
Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania; completed two years study. Met future husband, George Rubright there; after George left to serve in the US Navy,
transferred to Syracuse University to be closer to home and to save money. |
1942 |
1944 |
Syracuse University,
Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York; BS degree majoring in zoology. (was paid
a stipend by the Pratt & Whitney Corporation to take certain engineering
courses and work for them after graduation). |
4. Ruth’s marriage:
a. To whom: Dr. George
Lamar Rubright (photos) (more info)
(1) George’s
parents: Norton Monroe and Adella Kate (Burchill) Rubright
of Slatington/Frackville, Pennsylvania.
(2) George’s birth:
26
February 1921 at Frackville, Schuylkill County,
Pennsylvania.
George's
death: 26 January 2017 at Reading Hospital and Medical Center, Reading, Berks
County, Pennsylvania. Memorial service
held 1 April 2017 in St. John's (Hain's) United
Church of Christ, Wernersville, Berks County, Pennsylvania; cremated remains
interred adjacent to Ruth's.
(3) George’s formal
education:
From |
To |
School Name, Location,
Diploma/Degree |
1926 |
1932 |
Frackville Elementary School,
Frackville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. |
1932 |
1938 |
Frackville High School,
Frackville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. |
1938 |
1942 |
Dickinson College;
Carlisle, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania; BA degree majoring in philosophy (PhB). |
1942 |
1946 |
Temple University Medical
School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; medical student under the US Navy’s V-12
program; married between junior and senior years. |
1946 |
1947 |
Community General Hospital,
Reading, Pennsylvania; medical internship while on active duty in the US Navy
Reserve. |
(4) George’s
military service:
From |
To |
Service, Location |
1946 |
1947 |
Medical internship,
Community General Hospital, Reading, Pennsylvania. |
1947 |
1949 |
US Navy Reserve;
Charlestown Naval Hospital (1,500 beds), Charlestown, South Carolina. |
(5) George’s
employment history:
From |
To |
Employer, location, job |
1946 |
1947 |
Community General Hospital,
Reading, Pennsylvania; internship ($50/month, which barely paid the rent). |
1947 |
1949 |
Charleston Naval Hospital,
Charleston, South Carolina; physician. |
1949 |
1984 |
Physician in private
practice (General Practitioner), Reading, Pennsylvania. See paragraph 8.b., below. |
1984 |
Now |
Retired |
(6) George’s
addresses before marriage:
From |
To |
Address |
1921 |
1931 |
Resided with parents in
Frackville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania. |
1931 |
1938 |
Resided with grandparents
in Frackville, Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania (close to his parents’
residence) |
1938 |
1942 |
Carlisle, Cumberland
County, Pennsylvania; student at Dickinson College. |
1942 |
1945 |
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
student at Temple University Medical School. |
(7) Other
biographical notes on George:
a. George was named after his uncle George Washington Burchill, Sr., paragraph 3.d. of generation 3 of the Burchill Annex.
b. Origin of middle name: George’s aunt, Mary Margaret (Burchill) Haupt, wanted his
mother, Della, to name her 2nd son “Lamar,” but Della refused and
chose the name “Jay” instead. Shortly
after Jay’s birth, Mary Margaret died (20 May 1918). When Della’s next son, George, was born,
Norton and Della (Burchill) Rubright
gave him the middle name “Lamar” in remembrance of one of Mary Margaret’s last
wishes. Why Mary Margaret was attached
to the name “Lamar,” is not known.
c. At age 10 George moved into the nearby residence of his
Burchill grandparents and their two unmarried
daughters, Esther and Grace. His
parents’ home wasn’t large to start with, and when, in the spring of 1931,
George’s sister, Alberta, and her family (husband, who was a medical student,
and their baby daughter, Nancy) moved in, George was happy to move to his
grandparents’ house, where he could have a room of his own. It was also a move that benefited him
academically and dietetically. George’s
dear aunts Esther and Grace were both school teachers, who helped guide his
studies and his ambitions throughout elementary and high school. In addition, because his parents,
grandparents, and another aunt lived so closely together in Frackville, at
dinner time George would "shop" the three residences for the meal he
liked best.
d. George and Ruth were founders and active supporters of
the Wernersville Historical Society.
b. Marriage date
& location: Saturday, 23 June 1945 at the First
Congregational Church, Greene, Chenango County, New York; Reverend William L.
Wood officiated.
c. Children:
(1) Leigh Bryant Rubright: Born 1947.
(2) Stephen Courtney Rubright: Born 1949.
(3) Ann
Kasson Rubright: Born 1952.
(4) Todd Burchill
Rubright: Born 1955.
(5) Christopher Jay Rubright: Born 1961.
5. Ruth’s employment history:
From |
To |
Employer, location, job
title |
1927 |
1940 |
Growing up on a poultry
farm with roughly 80,000 chickens, Ruth and her siblings had many routine
farm chores. She especially remembered
the seemingly never-ending chore of cleaning eggs with a brush before they
could be shipped for sale. Couldn’t
use water because it would stain the egg shells. |
1944 |
1945 |
Pratt & Whitney
Aircraft Corporation, Hartford, Connecticut.
Was obligated to work for Pratt & Whitney as a result of its
sponsorship of her education at Syracuse University. |
1945 |
1946 |
After marriage, moved to
Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania, where she worked for Leiberneck’s
(a linen manufacturer); office worker.
Commuted to/from work via trolley. |
6. Ruth’s addresses:
From |
To |
Address |
1922 |
1940 |
Resided with parents at
Greene, Chenango County, New York. |
1940 |
1942 |
Carlisle, Cumberland
County, Pennsylvania; student at Dickinson College. |
1942 |
1944 |
Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York;
student at Syracuse University. |
1944 |
1945 |
Hartford Connecticut; employed by Pratt
& Whitney Aircraft Corporation. |
1945 |
1946 |
Apartment behind Temple University
Medical School, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
1945 |
1947 |
Apartment on Walnut Street, (downtown)
Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania. |
1947 |
1949 |
Rented a house in North Charlestown,
South Carolina. George commuted to
work at Charleston Naval Hospital in South Charleston. “Darned near froze to death” there; house’s
heating system was not adequate for infrequent freezing winter
temperatures. Moved July 1949, about 1
month after arrival of son, Stephen. |
1949 |
1953 |
Purchased house on North 3rd
Street, Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania. |
1953 |
1975 |
RD 1 (Wooltown
Road), Wernersville, Berks County, Pennsylvania 19565 (Greystone
Farm, built starting about 1792 in 2 sections, the larger was built
last. The original owner had 1,700
acres, which he split up into farms for his children.) |
1975 |
1976 |
Transition house below next residence. |
1976 |
2009 |
600 Fairmont Avenue, Wernersville,
Berks County, Pennsylvania 19565 (just west of Reading on 80 acres
overlooking Wernersville). |
2009 |
2011 |
910 N. Penn Drive, Wernersville, Berks
County, Pennsylvania 19565-9756 |
7. Ruth’s organizational affiliations:
From |
To |
Organization, offices held |
|
|
|
|
|
|
8. Other biographical notes on Ruth:
a. Ruth was named for her Aunt Ruth Winifred (Reynolds)(Pollock) Whitaker, generation 2, paragraph 3.d. of the Reynolds Annex.
b. In July 1949, after military service, George and Ruth
purchased and moved into a house on North 3rd Street in Reading,
Pennsylvania. George remodeled some of
the downstairs rooms to serve as his medical offices. In the Thanksgiving timeframe of that year a
colleague, who wanted to transition to pediatrics, offered to rent George his
downtown offices while he trained for the new specialty and to transfer his GP
practice to George. George accepted the
offer and stepped right into the active practice. When the colleague returned from training
about two years later it was clear the offices were too small for both
practices, so George bought a building a few blocks away, remodeling the whole
first floor for medical use, and creating two apartments on the second floor
and another apartment on the third floor.
He was there just two years when the City of Reading condemned the
property for use as a parking lot. He
lost money on the renovations, since the City would not pay what he had
invested in it. George commented: “Only
my rotten lawyer made money.” Then he
bought another building two doors away (300 S. Fifth Street, Reading, PA 19602)
from where he had started out – the other half of a large building that had been
used primarily for medical offices since its construction in the 1800s. George remodeled it, preserving apartments on
the second and third floors, and practiced there until he retired in 1984.
c. Ruth and George purchased the property on the hill
outside Wernersville (600 Fairmont Av.), Pennsylvania in 1960 from a Mennonite farming family. In 1974 they constructed a transition house
on a part of that property at the bottom of the hill to facilitate the move
from their large stone house on nearby Wooltown
Road. They lived there in close quarters
with the contents of their previous residence, much of which remained packed,
for about one year while the house on the hill was being constructed, moving
into the new house in 1976. Of interest,
their daughter, Leigh, and her husband also resided in the transition house for
about one year.
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