Ruth Helen Ballou Pratt

Ruth Helen Ballou Pratt went to meet her eternal Father on September 29, 2024, in Los Alamos, New Mexico, where she had been living with her sister, Mary Courtright, for the past four years.

A Memorial Service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, December 7, at Butler Volland Chapel in Hastings with Rev. Lynette Janssen officiating. Burial will be at Juniata Cemetery in Juniata, NE. Memorial gifts may be made to St. Paul’s United Methodist Church in Papillion, Nebraska (StPaulsPapio.org) and to the Pratt Teaching Excellence and Support Fund at the Papio-LaVista Schools Foundation (plcsfoundation.org). The service will be live-streamed on Livingston Butler Volland Funeral Home’s website. To view the service, go to Ruth’s obituary and click the play button shown towards the bottom of the page. 

Ruth was born in Furnas County, NE, near the town of Wilsonville, on All Saints’ Day in 1926. She was the third of five children, and the first daughter of John Loy Ballou and Helen Aletha Colling Ballou. She attended school in the Wilsonville Independent School District throughout her primary and secondary education years, graduating from Wilsonville High School in 1944. Ruth was honored just this past May at the Wilsonville High School annual reunion and recognized on the anniversary of her 80th year graduation date. Her dad, John Ballou, was a farmer and local community leader, and her mom, Helen Ballou was active in the Wilsonville community, as she also took on the job of raising the three other brothers and one younger sister to Ruth: John Ballou, Jr., Charles Ballou, Roger Ballou, and Mary Lynne Ballou Courtright. 

Ruth attended college at the Mary Lanning School of Nursing in Hastings, NE, and received her degree in nursing in 1946. She worked as a Registered Nurse in Nebraska, and throughout the world, for all of her working life. She finished her training for her RN certification in a Veterans Hospital in the Chicago area that at that time specialized in the seriously wounded soldiers that had survived on the battlefields of Europe, and the Pacific theater, of World War II. It was an experience that marked her for the rest of her medical career, and her personal life, as she continued to provide health care for people of all walks of life.

She worked as a Registered Nurse in hospitals across the United States and taught nurses training in the RN programs at the College of Saint Mary, Clarkson College, and Creighton University, all in Omaha, NE.

Ruth finished her career in medicine in 1995 after 27 years of employment as a School Nurse in the Papillion Independent School District and the Springfield Independent School District in the Omaha area. She would continue to provide medical care and advice to others up until this summer when she finally ran out of time and energy. She made a difference in the world of medical care.

She married Clifford LaMar Pratt on November 28, 1947, in Boise, ID. Cliff was also an alumnus of the Wilsonville ISD; he preceded her in death in September 2019. They embarked on a marriage that produced three sons: Allyn Ray Pratt and wife Gale Llewellyn Hobson Pratt, Steven John Pratt and wife Teresa (Teri) Ann Deeter Pratt, and David Lyn Pratt and wife Marilyn Ann Bailey. Cliff was a WWII veteran and was called back into the Military in 1950. He and Ruth spent the next 20 years traveling across the United States and the world. They were posted to Washington State, Florida, Nebraska, Louisiana, France, Guam, and many other stations, most in some not-so-exotic locations, for short periods of time. 

Ruth was the glue that held the family together as the five of them traveled the world together. She finally got to retire from the nomadic life of the military with her family in 1968, and she was instrumental in picking the Omaha area as the place to pitch the final home tent. She is a native-born Nebraskan and proud to be a Cornhusker. She wanted to watch her home state Cornhusker Football team win one last time, and they beat Purdue the day before she passed away. There is absolutely no place like Nebraska, and that is where she will have her final resting place, next to her husband of almost 72 years. She was also an accomplished and avid bridge player and loved spending time with her many friends and family members. She was a member of the First United Methodist Church in Papillion beginning in 1968 until her move to New Mexico in the fall of 2020.

Ruth is survived by her only sister; three sons; three daughters-in-law; six grandchildren and spouses; nine great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins. She loved and adored all of her children and great-grandchildren, but she had a special place in her heart for her six grandchildren: Rebecca Lynn, Stacie Nicole, Stephanie Noel, Megan Ellyn, Andrew Clifford, and Daniel Clifford. They were blessings from Heaven that she would forever cherish.

Ruth completed her last nursing shift at noon on September 29, 2024. It was a life well lived and she has earned her eternal rest.