Eugenia Ruth Larson, 88, passed away Friday, October 24, 2014 at the Manning Plaza Nursing Home, Manning, IA. Ruth, daughter of Opal G. and Ollie R. (Lackey) Cypert, was born February 12, 1926 in Lockney, TX. She was the second youngest of seven children. She grew up on a farm near Cedar Hill, TX and as a child helped pick cotton on the family farm. She attended Cedar Hill Grade School and Floydada High School. She left high school to go to work in Amarillo, TX. She completed the Western Union Telegraphy course and worked there awhile and also worked at the Panhandle Laundry. While in Amarillo, she enjoyed attending dances where she met her future husband, Laurel Larson, who was stationed at the Amarillo Air Base. On August 4, 1945 they were married in Amarillo. The day after the wedding they left on a train trip to South Dakota for her to meet and visit his family. After a brief return to Texas and after Laurel's honorable discharge from the Army in October 1945, they moved to South Dakota and in the spring of 1946 moved to a farm southwest of Egan and started farming. They lived on two different farms southwest of Egan until 1968 when they purchased a farm eleven miles south of Brookings. Ruth attended the Church of Christ in Cedar Hill as a child. The Cypert children would often be called upon to sing in church. On April 24, 1953 she was baptized at Our Savior's Lutheran Church and on May 10, 1953 was confirmed into the Lutheran faith and became a member of Clare Lutheran Church. Her daughters remember attending confirmation classes and were there when she was baptized. Ruth was a farm wife typical of that time raising chickens and growing a big garden to can food for the family. She sold eggs every week for spending money. From her egg earnings, she bought a piano, paid for piano lessons for her daughters, bought groceries, and made their Sunday church offering. Ruth loved the piano and although she never took lessons, she could play many songs from ear and enjoyed doing so. Her family remembers her good cooking, especially her Southern fried chicken and milk gravy, baking powder biscuits, and pinto beans. She became a Norwegian cook making lefse for her family. She lived on the farm south of Brookings with her husband for forty years. In 2009, a year after Laurel's death, she built a duplex on Spafford Square in Flandreau where she lived until May 2012 when due to declining health she moved to Reed House Assisted Living in Denison, IA, to be near Donna. In November 2013 as her health further declined she became a resident of the Manning Plaza in Manning, IA, where Donna lives.

Ruth is survived by her twin daughters, Donna (Floyd) Forman, Manning, IA, Dianne (Roger) Headrick, Eden Prairie, MN; four grandsons: Sean (Sylvia) Forman, Philadelphia, PA, Christopher (Ellen) Forman, West Lafayette, IN, Carter (Kelly) Headrick, Centennial, CO, and Peter Headrick, Fairfax, CA; and six great-grandchildren: Carl and Elinore Forman, Ashlyn and Tyler Forman, and Ramsey and Laurel Headrick; one sister Edith Gugenheim, Wichita, KS, and one sister-in-law, Ruth Larson, Egan, SD. She was preceded in death by her husband, an infant daughter at birth, her parents, two sisters, Ruby Higginbotham and Zola Cypert, and three brothers, Albert Cypert, James Cypert, and Warren Cypert.

Funeral services will be 10:30 AM Thursday, October 30, 2014 at Our Savior's Lutheran Church, Flandreau, with burial in Clare Lutheran Cemetery. Visitation is 5:00 – 7:00 pm Wednesday at Skroch Funeral Chapel.