retary at the county extension

retary at the county extension office. When she retired 41 years later, her tenure at the office had encompassed that of three county extension agents, seven assistant agents and 18 home agents assigned to the county office. The agent at the time of her retirement, Rap Owings, recalled how, in addition to her secretarial responsibilities, Ruby *had been I involved in obtaining the donation of the land on which the county recreation center was built and had been responsible for securing substantial donations for the building of the 4H center near Front Royal. Mk

White working at the ■[ extension office, Ruby found W

the time and energy to join the \ all-woman ticket in the 1950 M

gentle takeover of the A Washington Town govern- M

ment and served as Clerk flp for the town while on the Town Council. w

She pitched in to keep the campaign promise to clean up the Town, painting old barrels and drums for trash containers, sweeping the streets and overseeing a horse-and-buggy trash collector making rounds around the town.

It was during this time that Ruby came up with the idea to transplant the wild white and pink dogwoods that covered the hillsides around the town to bring the beauty of the dogwoods to the streets and yards of Washington.

Unable to talk her - Pr their way - out of it, the men at the extension office found themselves digging wild dogwoods and bringing them to the front porch of the extension office (now the office of the County Administrator) where they were given away free to anyone who would plant them. As more and more residents sought to participate in this early beautification program, Ruby arranged to get dogwoods from nurseries to sell at a nominal price to residents. As a result of her effort, thousands of dogwoods were planted all around the town and in