ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, April 10, 1997 TAG: 9704100041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY THE ROANOKE TIMES
Roanoke Times reporter Dan Casey recently sat down for a conversation with Ruby Lee Henritze. Her first words were, "You're gonna interview me? Why? I don't know anything! Anything that's been interesting in my life has long passed." But she had a lot to say.
Ruby Lee Henritze, who will be 99 years old next month, is the last member of the Henritze family who moved to Roanoke from Welch, W.Va., in 1909. Except for a five-year "visit" in Los Angeles in the 1920s, she has lived in the city ever since.
Ruby's father died when she was 2. The youngest of nine children, she was raised by her mother and her eldest brother, William P. Henritze.
William Henritze was an industrialist and real estate investor who at one time owned all of Mill Mountain, an incline railroad that climbed to its peak, and the former Rockledge Inn.
Ruby's entire life was devoted to her family. She never held a job, never married and to this day harbors no regrets about either. She is cared for by friends, three nieces who live in Roanoke and a hired assistant who lives with her part-time in the family home near the base of Mill Mountain.
Starting out
"I don't know what to tell about [my life]. It hasn't been very exciting, I know that. It's been a mighty calm existence. I've had a good time, a good life. Nothing that I regret at all.
"Father was Sam Henritze. Mother was Emma Parrish Henritze. They were from Marion. We went to Welch, W.Va. We were there for 15 or 20 years.
"My father I never knew. He died when I was about 2 years old. He had a burst appendix. He had a pain in his stomach, and they started putting hot applications on it. He died within 24 hours.
"There were eight of us - six girls and two boys. There was another boy, but he died very young. Paul, he was not quite 14 years old. It happened in Welch. There was a train full of peanuts. It was down the track a ways. And he had a friend, older, about 20 years old. And his friend said, 'Let's get on this train and go down to the peanut train.'
"And they climbed on top of this train. It was moving down the tracks. The older boy, he had a shotgun. And when they got to the tunnel he said to Paul, 'I'm going to fire this gun; you stand behind me.' So he'd be safe. But Paul didn't understand him. And instead, he stepped in front of the other boy. And he shot him."
Moving to Roanoke
"Brother Will liked the mountain. And he was determined to get it. And so he bought it just about the time we moved here, 1909. I was about 12. Brother Will built the road up the mountain and built five of the larger homes. Brother John fixed the bridge up there. I think that's one of the outstanding things of Roanoke. It's been written up all over the world - a bridge that crosses a bridge. I've lived in this house since 1912, when they built it.
"We bought the [Rockledge Inn], oh, I don't know what year that was. There were 11 rooms upstairs and a big dance pavilion downstairs. We ran it as an eating place. We served three meals a day up there. We had 14 tables. I used to walk up the mountain every day of the world. I would go up and pick wildflowers. I used to fix flowers on the tables.
"I've never driven. When I was young, streetcars were the main transportation. You could get on the streetcar and go all over Roanoke, mostly. Sometimes we'd hire horse-drawn cabs, but that was an extravagance. Later, there was always a member of the family that would take me places.
"We had an incline that would take you up on the mountain at 25 cents admission. Coming back down, I used to get the man to stop. And then I'd climb off and walk through the woods to come home. You should have seen the faces of the people."
The family
"After high school, I came [to the house] and set. They said I was sickly growing up. They never wanted me to do this or that. But I've never been incapacitated. Never worked. They didn't want me to.
I never have [voted]. Isn't that awful? I was just too trifled. Just too lazy. I was the only member of the family that didn't vote.
"I think my family with me was the happiest time of my life. Each day would bring something interesting.
"My family never did anything outstanding. They all lived a quiet life: Go to church, go to school, go to dances. We used to go to dances. They had Mountain Park. They had a big pavilion out there. We used to go dancing every Friday night.
"We lived in Los Angeles for five or six years around 1926. The first time we went there we took two cars. It took us 31 days to get there.
"We went out there for pleasure, just to see the country. And we liked it so well we bought a home and lived there for five years. We just went there to visit. [Roanoke] was home. We didn't give this up.
"Mother - I was 40 when she died. She died here in this house. She was 67 years old. She died of a heart attack. All the rest of them died of heart attacks. I'm the last survivor.
"Strange as it may seem, I took each [death] as it came. I would miss them like I don't know what, but I still wouldn't grieve over them. I just figure they were so much better off than I was, I didn't worry about it. We were all congenial. We loved each other so much."
Never married
"I was considered halfway decent looking. All my life I've been slender. One summer, I went to Craig Healing Springs over there in Fincastle. I gained 14 pounds. It must have been those three big meals at the hotel every day.
"There was one brother, two sisters and myself that never married. I've been proposed to. I haven't been neglected. I was proposed to three or four times.
"One or two [suitors], as I remember, got down on their knees. And I told them to get up before they fell on their faces. I didn't want to marry. They couldn't give me as much as I had at home.
"It wasn't too long ago the last time I was proposed to. Oh, about 14 years ago. Uh huh, when I was 84. Still young, though."
Day by day
"Time passes rather easily for me. I don't have much trouble living through the day.
"My niece, Sarah Deaton, takes me to Kroger every week. I buy groceries enough to keep me for the week. I have a boyfriend there, oh yes. [Her eyes twinkle, she laughs gently.] He claims the store belongs to me. He's married, and he has two grown children.
"I can get up and do. I change the furniture around when I get ready, and clean up the house. I can cook, [but] I don't like to cook, It's boresome.
"To be interested in things that are happening today is to be young, I think. I read. I've gotten so though that my eyes are not too good. The most that I read are just periodicals - magazines - that I get. My niece brings them over, Good Housekeeping. Ladies Home Journal.
"Other than my back, I'm fine, just fine. If that didn't hurt, I could get up and tear the house down."
A long life
"I think my secret is just keeping my nose out of other people's business. I try not to interfere one way or the other. I know the Lord is good to me. He's protected me all of these years, I don't know why.
"I've learned nothing that would benefit anyone else. I've learned to take life as it is. And each day, I've learned to live as it comes, and not to worry about tomorrow or the next day."
LENGTH: Long : 138 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: CARY BEST THE ROANOKE TIMES. Ruby Lee Henritze, 98, isby CNBthe last surviving member of the Henritze family, who settled in
Roanoke in 1909. color.