Ruby Henry, who died Jan. 25 at the age of 92, began preaching when she was 23 and never gave it up — even though it was a sore point between her and her husband.
Henry never stopped “being concerned about people’s souls,” said her daughter, Linda Henry of Boulder. “She was a real warrior.”
Still, her late husband, Harold Henry, didn’t want her to be an evangelist.
“He was kind of a male chauvinist,” said his son, Ken Henry of Fruita, where the family lived for decades.
“She was frustrated because her heart and soul were so devoted to helping people with their spiritual welfare,” he said.
Ruby Henry told her children that she had contracted an abdominal infection when she was a teenager living in Texas. Doctors had given up on her when, she said, she went to a neighbor’s house, and the man prayed for her, and she got well.
After that, she was determined to be a minister.
Though her husband didn’t want her traveling and ministering, she never fully gave up preaching.
Henry filled in for churches needing a pastor and did occasional revivals.
She taught Sunday school and never turned down anyone who asked her to come over and pray for a sick family member.
“You didn’t want to tangle with her about the Bible,” her daughter said, because Ruby Henry had read it several times and could quote much of it.
For about 20 years, Henry also took in foster children, who stayed with her from a few days to as long as 17 years, Linda Henry said.
In most cases, the children were taken out of troubled family situations by the local courts.
Ruby Henry loved all the kids, said her daughter, but “she was strict, required everyone to go to church three times a week, and sometimes it was hard for her to see why anyone would think differently than she did.”
“Mother was a real student of the Bible, and she had a God-given talent for preaching,” Ken Henry said.
Ruby Barrow was born in south Texas on Sept. 13, 1915. She was reared in a “poverty-ridden home with an abusive father,” Ken Henry said.
In the early days, she traveled from Texas to Minnesota, leading week-long revivals at Assembly of God churches, the denomination that ordained her.
She once was the only woman on a troop train in California during World War II, traveling to a revival, her daughter said.
Henry had her guitar and sang songs such as “You Are My Sunshine” for the troops.
“She didn’t know honky-tonk songs,” Linda Henry said.
It was during such a revival in Fruita that Ruby Barrow met Harold Henry, a widower with two small sons. They married on July 24, 1947. The couple had one daughter, Linda.
In addition to her daughter and stepson, she is survived by another stepson, Paul Henry of Oklahoma City; five grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
