Ruth Carpenter Woodley was known fairly universally as Aunt Ruth.  She was Ferry Carpenter’s older sister and jokingly referred to as the only person who could boss FRC around. She grew up in Evanston, Illinois and went to Wellesley College, class of 1908.

Aunt Ruth taught school in Pagoda, Colorado, worked for many years in Chicago in social work, and was happiest as a recreation director both in Illinois and in North Carolina.  She and her husband, Chester Woodley, adopted two children, Mary Belle and Robert.

After Chester died, Aunt Ruth moved to Tryon, North Carolina with her old friend, Elizabeth Stanwood. They ran a business together selling local crafts. She and Elizabeth operated a dude ranch the LXBar from her brother, Ferry’s, homestead north of Hayden. Together they built a log cabin she called the Chaparral.  In the 50s she moved the cabin from Ferry’s homestead to the mesa above the Carpenter Ranch where it sits today.  She said that when the cabin was ferried across the Yampa all the packrats jumped out into the river!

Aunt Ruth was a storyteller but rarely spoke of her personal life. When her nephew, Willis Carpenter, read the letters linked below, he said he learned more about his aunt than he had known while she was alive.

Along with many other 1908 graduates, she wrote a letter to Wellesley reflecting on her life every five years.  These letters were collected and published in a book, Red Hats, Beads and Bags, by Delores Murphy.

Aunt Ruth’s Letters from Red Hats book

Carpenter Family standing in front of the ranch house around 1948-1950: From L-R: Eunice Pleasant Carpenter, Ruth Carpenter Woodley, Mary Belle Woodley, Marian Carpenter (FRC’s youngest sister), Belle Reed Carpenter (FRC’s mother) and Ferry Carpenter (FRC).