the Flying A studios, spending as much time as possible atop a horse
and wearing a Stetson.
In a last-ditch effort, her family sent her to the Shipley School,
a preparatory school for Bryn Mawr, but she left and returned to
Santa Barbara in 1918. She was just in time for the Spanish Flu, the
mysterious pandemic that killed between 50 and 100 million people
worldwide in 1918 and 1919. With her father working as the director
of the American Red Cross, it is no wonder that Ruth was recruited for
service. She joined the Red Cross Motor Pool and drove her Cadillac
roadster an average of 100 miles a day delivering milk, food, and
messages to the sick and quarantined in town.
In the spring of 1919, Ruth, now 22 years old, was ready to
explore the West. Together with her friend Lucia MacKinlay, she
headed first for Yosemite National Park. A park bulletin reported,
“They are firm believers in the close-to-nature life, having a complete
camping outfit, and they pitch their tent wherever night overtakes
them.” The girls planned to travel as far north as Oregon and hoped to
return via Lake Tahoe and the Owens River Valley.
Perhaps her fate was sealed on this trip, for at some point she met
Charles Kittery (Billy) Bell of Oakland, Oregon, who owned a ranch,
was a wizard with horses, and knew his way around a lasso. (It’s even
possible that Billy had worked for a time as a Flying A cowboy.)
How they met remains a mystery, but on September 17, 1920,
the
Morning Press
reported, “Announcement is made of the marriage in
Yreka, California, on August 31, of Miss Ruth W. Black, daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Clarence A. Black to Mr. Charles K. Bell. They will pass
the winter on Mr. Bell’s ranch in Oregon.”
MOGULS
&
MANSIONS
(top) Billy demonstrates his prowess with a rope at
El Cerrito;
(middle) Ruth in conventional ladylike pose; (bottom left) Miss
Gamble’s School for Girls; (bottom right) during the Spanish Flu
epidemic, Ruth joined the Red Cross Motor Pool and delivered
milk, food, and messages to the sick and quarantined
winter
|
spring
61
