Woman loves Tri-Cities

By GAIL JARDINE - editorial@kcchronicle.com

Ruth Johnson remains close to her high school friends. She still plays bridge with them.. (H. Rick Bamman photo)

BATAVIA – When Ruth Hassler was 3, her family moved from Aurora to Fairfield, Iowa.

Her grandfather was a blacksmith in Missouri, but with the growing popularity of automobiles, he took a job in the factory where her father was an engineer.

The second of 10 children, Ruth was her mother’s helper as the babies came along. She was 10 when her sister Lavinia was born, and her mother was very ill.

“I had to take over the care of the baby, and I just loved it!” she said. “I had a little red wagon, and I’d make her a bed in the wagon and wheel her all over, wherever I wanted to play. She says, to this day, when anyone says ‘mother,’ she thinks of me first.”

Her father also was an officer in the Boy Scouts, in charge of inspecting camps during the summer.

“We traveled around with my father in a big Olds touring car,” she said.

She recalls the big Chatauqua theater in Fairfield that hosted musicals, dramas, and political speakers from around the country.

She was one of the local children recruited to sing in the chorus of musical productions.

Each church in town had a Boy and/or Girl Scout group that camped out on the Chatauqua grounds for two weeks in the summer. Also exciting were the football games at Parsons College in Fairfield.

Ruth’s family moved to Batavia for the second time when she was a sophomore at Batavia High School. Her father became head of the engineering department at Richard Wilcox in Aurora.

“When we moved, I was sure I would never have a friend,” she said, but she soon met Lois Woodard, who became a lifelong friend.

“Her parents were wonderful to me,” she said. “Whenever they’d go somewhere, they’d ask me to go along.”

She loved school, except Latin class, and Lois helped her through that.

Ruth said she had marvelous parents, and a happy childhood.

“We didn’t have TV, and we entertained ourselves, playing outside all the time and making up games,” she said. “There were always kids in the neighborhood to play with.”

After high school graduation, the girls of the Class of ’33 frequently got together, and the remaining five still do to this day.

She worked at a barbecue stand. Her friends kept saying, “Wait until Foland gets to town.”  

Harold Foland was attending Eureka College and throughout his life was a close friend of Ronald Reagan. After graduation, Harold returned to Batavia.

Later she worked at the West Side Fruit Store in Batavia.

“Almost all of the older Hasslers worked at the grocery store,” she said.

Harold and Ruth were married in 1934 and settled in Batavia. Harold and his father opened Batavia Recreation Center, a bowling alley in downtown Batavia.

When the last of her four children entered high school, Ruth began working there part time. Then came World War II. Ruth, Harold’s mother, and another man from Aurora ran the business while Harold worked for DuKane Corp. making sound systems for Naval ships.

Ronald Reagan often flew into Chicago and rented a car. He would stop at St. Charles and have lunch with Harold on his way to his hometown of Dixon.

During the first part of the war, the Folands lived in a small house that they had built on First Street (now Lincolnway). It was the first air-conditioned house in Batavia, and the bowling alley was the first air-conditioned business, she said.

Their family grew quickly, and the Folands traded houses with an older couple who wanted to leave their large home.

Ruth taught Sunday school as well as Thursday school held by the local churches. She also helped Harold do gold printing on leather books and goods for Mooseheart.

During the war, it almost was impossible to get pin setters for the bowling alley, so Harold made a deal with St. Charles School for Boys. He picked up the boys, took them to the bowling alley to set pins, and took them home.

“He paid them, and when they got out of the school, they had a little money saved,” she said. “We never had a bit of trouble with a single boy. Later, after they were married and had families, some of those young boys would come out to see us. It pleased my husband greatly.

“It was such a wonderful place to work,” she said. “Lots of people came in to have a good time.”

Eventually, the city of Batavia allowed the Folands to put a bar in the bowling alley, which was a great help financially.

Ruth enjoyed taking her children to Lake Geneva to visit her father, who had a home there.

In 1978, the Folands sold the business and moved to Sarasota, Fla., but Harold was in poor health, and after five years, they returned to Batavia. He died in 1982.

Ruth moved to South Elgin to be near her daughter. One day, while preparing to go to her brother’s home in Hinkley to a poker club, she received a call from Bert Johnson, whose deceased wife she had known, and they had many mutual friends. She invited him to the poker game.

“That’s how it started,” she said.

A pharmacist, Bert was semi-retired from the family business, Johnson’s Pharmacy. Bert and Ruth were married in 1985, and they traveled to Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, D.C., Canada and either Minoqua or Door County each fall.

They were married for 20 years.

“I can’t believe how lucky I was to have two absolutely wonderful husbands and a wonderful life with each of them,” she said. “Just when I though my life was over, we found each other.”

On her wall are two framed letters from President Reagan, one offering sympathy on Harold’s death and another congratulating her on her marriage to Bert Johnson.

Next to them is a letter from John F. Kennedy because Bert Johnson was a member of the crew of the ship that rescued the crew of PT 109.

Ruth remains close to her high school friends. She still plays bridge with them.

“Many stayed in town because of the Depression,” she said.

She also belongs to the Batavia Women’s Club and the Batavia Congregational Church (now the United Church of Christ) and supports Habitat for Humanity.

She just celebrated her 92nd birthday. She raised four children of her own, and has three stepchildren, three step-grandchildren, 17 grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren.

“I love the Fox Valley,” she said. “It’s a wonderful place to live, and I have so many caring friends here!”

– If you know someone who should be featured in Kane County Faces, send your story idea to Gail Jardine c/o Lifestyles, 1000 Randall Road, Geneva, IL 60134, or e-mail lifestyles @kcchronicle.com.