Ruth Ann Monette, born March twenty first of 1930, wife of Ken Monette through sixty two years of life, and mother of Patricia, Michael, Debbie, Jeffrey, Kathy, Cindy, and Pamela, quietly passed away this past Friday evening, April 6th, 2012. She was comfortable, pain free, and well cared for in the bosom of the Rapid City Regional Hospital Hospice of the Black Hills through recent weeks and at the time of her passing. She was quietly, and sometimes wonderfully loudly, attended to and comforted by her family, friends, and fantastic hospice staff members throughout her time in hospice.

Ruth Ann Daily started her life in upstate New York as the daughter of an Army sergeant and his wife. She grew up in a life typical of the time and place, graduated from high school, got a job, met a dashing young man freshly home from World War II and married him on July 2nd, 1950. The following sixty two years brought her seven children, including the infant death of the first, many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Her life journey included following her husband from New York to Nebraska to Montana and then finally to Rapid City, South Dakota as he worked to support the construction of the Minute Man Missile program. Though her heart stayed connected to upstate New York, she and Ken retired in Rapid City.

Our mother was very proud that all of her children became capable, responsible people in their own lives. All of her children worked closely together in her final years of life to ensure that she was well taken care of and happy. Her marriage and closeness to husband, Kenneth Leroy Monette, continued to the very last minute of her passing. Ruth was a undeniable force of nature; a loving, hardworking, passionate consumer of life who never saw a job she was not willing to do, a person she was not willing to be a friend to, never saw a child she did not want to hug. She taught her family to relentlessly fight hard for what you believe in, to work through issues without giving up, and to make peanut butter fudge, wonderful bread, and baking powder biscuits. She is and will be missed.

Ruth's remains are interred at Kinkade Funeral Chapel until her husband Ken's passing. At that time their wishes are to have their lives celebrated in a remembrance service together, as life brought sixty two years of together to them, and then to be interred together in the Black Hills National Cemetery.