June 11, 1927 - Nov. 27, 2012
A Celebration of Life honoring Evelyn Ruff will be held on Friday, Dec. 21, at 1 p.m., at the Nadeau Family Funeral Home in Vacaville. Mrs. Ruff was best known as the director of award winning bands from Charles L. Sullivan Intermediate School in Fairfield during the late 1960's and throughout the 70's.
Mrs. Ruff passed away Tuesday, Nov. 27, at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, having suffered a heart attack. Evelyn was born on June 11, 1927, in Harrison, Idaho, to Harry and Cecilia (Wickstrom) Jensen. She moved to Spokane, Washington at the age of two; living there until graduating magna cum laude from Gonzaga in 1951 after which she began her teaching career. She met her husband, Ralph, a fellow teacher, while teaching in Kennewick, Washington. They were married 52 years until his death in 2008.
For the past 48 years Mrs. Ruff has been a resident of Vacaville. She taught music in the Fairfield-Suisun Unified School District starting in 1962 until her retirement in 1987. After retirement she volunteered time with the Vacaville Art Gallery and helped her husband Ralph with his genealogy research, as well as helping her grandchildren with homework and music lessons.
Evelyn is survived by her two sons, David (wife Linda) of Sherwood, Oregon, and Jonathan (wife Cecelia) of Vacaville, as well as five grandchildren, Scott, Tate, Christina, Michelle and Christopher, and her legacy of successful kids to whom she devoted her career, teaching band and classroom music. 
She will be laid to rest with her husband, Ralph, in Sacramento Valley National Cemetery, Dixon.

Published in The Reporter on Dec. 16, 2012