Ruth Olive Hocker (22 Aug 1920—12 Feb 2016)

Ruth Olive (Hoover) Hocker passed away Friday morning, the 12^th of February, at her home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Born on 22 August 1920 in Lescontes Mills, Girard Township, Clearfield, County, she was one of the twelve children—seven sons and five daughters—of Clyde Leroy and Nora Melinda (Houdeshell) Hoover.

When she was just a child, her family moved from Lescontes Mills where her father had been working as a lumberman, to Pine Glen, Centre County where her father was born. She grew-up there near her paternal grandparents and many other family members.

The house they lived in¹—while sizable enough for a family of 12 children—did not have electricity or running water. There was a well for water and an outhouse. Still is for that matter. When they needed water for cooking or washing, one of the children was sent either to the creek across the road or out back to the well. ²

When I asked about her favorite summer pastimes, she recalled that with chores there wasn’t a lot of free time. They baked their own bread, raised their own food—both animal and vegetable, harvested and preserved the food from the garden in the fall, and washed their clothes—and with 12 kids there was a lot of it—by hand. The girls worked in the house and gardens while the boys worked the farm and farm animals, hunted, and cut firewood.

When there was time, she liked to go on wood hikes with her father, picnics, reading books from the library her mother ran from their front room, and splashing in the creek. The boys, she remembered, sometimes played baseball.

At the age of 18 she moved to Harrisburg where she worked as a domestic for the Bogar family to earn money to go to college. That was where she met her future husband William H. Hocker.  He accompanied his father to do some carpentry work at the Bogar house.

William and Kate—as she was known to close friends and family—were married 24 September 1921 at Olivet Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg. Bill’s sister Anna Louise and Ruth’s brother Don served as their attendants. The couple resided in Harrisburg, living in a home that had been owned by the Hocker family since the 1890s.

While Ruth worked outside the home at a flower shop after her children were grown, she was happiest tending to her home, family and friends. She enjoyed baking, sewing, and discovered a love of reading at a young age when her mother operated the Pine Glen library from their home.

She is survived by her children: Richard Hocker, William III Hocker, Virginia Davis, and JoAnn Hocker, four grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. Also surviving her are her sister Norma Jean (Hoover) Hoover, brother Marvin “Bud” Hoover, and various nieces, nephews and their children.

She was preceded in death by her parents and nine siblings, including: Harold L. Hoover, W. Russell Hoover, Helen F. Yingling, Sarah I. “Betz” Plubell, Willard C. “Boots” Hoover, Clyde L. Hoover, Donald V. Hoover, Gladys H. “Peg” Hoover, and Robert P. “Bob” Hoover.

She will be buried beside her husband at Paxtang Cemetery, in Paxtang, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania.

• Category: Family
• Tag: Hacker-Hocker Genealogy, Hoover Surname Study