Ruby W. Getty helped run the family farm in Riley, south of Marengo, while working part time as a teacher. “I can’t remember her not being busy,” said her daughter, JoAnn Zenk. Mrs. Getty, 86, died of congestive heart failure Saturday, Dec. 6, in her Marengo home. She was born and raised in Harmony. She graduated from Marengo Community High School and obtained a teaching degree from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. She began working as a full-time teacher of elementary students in one-room schoolhouses in and around Hampshire and Riley, her daughter said. She met Joseph P. Getty at a dance near Belvidere, and the couple married in 1944. Mrs. Getty worked as a part-time or substitute teacher for about 20 years after marrying and starting a family. She was active in her church and for years was a member of the Riley Homemakers, a group of farm wives who cooked, gardened and raised funds for the local historical society and its preservation efforts. “She had her parents and a lot of elderly uncles and aunts and was very involved in their lives and with helping them,” her daughter said. Her husband died in 1999. Other survivors include two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Visitation will be held from 10 a.m. until noon, when a service will begin in the Marengo United Methodist Church, 119 E. Washington St., Marengo.
