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Ruth often commented in recent years that she was one of a dwindling few that could still remember that day.

Ruth Knowla Feland Herbert passed away on August 4, 2026, at the age of 88 at her beloved New Mexico property in Sacramento while she was traveling with her two daughters. While she was generally in good health, the passing of her husband, Don, in 2022 had left a lasting sadness in her life.

She is survived by her two daughters, Heather Murrell (Terry), and Greta Stanton (Arnie), her grandson, Daniel (Amy), two great-grandchildren (Brisby and Corrin), and also many much-loved nieces and nephews.

Ruth was born on January 16, 1938 in Sacramento, CA to Dorothy Knowles Feland. While an infant, she moved with her mother and sister, Dorothy Jean, to Idaho, where she was entrusted to the care of a wonderful family in Pocatello, who loved her so much that they offered to adopt the young Ruth. However, her sister, Dorothy Jean, vetoed that plan. As she grew older, Ruth traveled back and forth to Idaho to visit, even traveling alone by bus as a teenager, for many summers thereafter.

In 1941 on Pearl Harbor Day, Ruth was walking home from Sunday School with her sister, when news broke of the attack. Her 3 year-old-self thought about it and remarked that “it was a dirty trick to attack when everyone was getting ready to go to church.” Ruth often commented in recent years that she was one of a dwindling few that could still remember that day. She noted that it changed her life, as it did so many others.

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One of Ruth’s greatest joys was the Write Your Life Story class that she first attended and then taught for over twenty years.

During the war, she and her mother lived in Encinitas, CA. She remembered that she had to cross the railroad tracks and Pacific Coast Highway everyday going back and forth to elementary school. Those were certainly different times, but she did it, and regularly reminded us of all her experiences during the war, which are too numerous to include here.

With the war coming to an end, Ruth and her mother soon moved to West Los Angeles, where Ruth graduated from Hamilton High School in 1955. She had met her beloved Don at church in 1950, and they were married in 1957.

In 1959 she graduated from UCLA with her nursing degree despite her mother’s warnings and assurances that she would NEVER graduate if she got married. As an RN she began working at the Los Angeles County Health department. Her first daughter was born in 1963, and Ruth “retired” from nursing, although she did another short stint in public health nursing in 1966, worked as a school nurse for Mary Star of the Sea Catholic school in San Pedro, CA during the 1980’s, and then worked with USC on a long-term breast cancer study.

In 1969, the family moved to their Lomita, CA home where she lived until her passing. During her 57 years there she made many contributions to the community. One of the groups with which she had the longest affiliation is the Friends of Lomita Library where she was president for many years, putting on wonderful annual teas, working to save the library from permanent closure in the 1990’s, and advocating for the building of the community room. Along with those bigger projects, she worked tirelessly on the regular book sales, and other projects throughout the years. In addition, she was a member of Las Vecinas, which she enjoyed very much. And, she taught various Bible studies, in her neighborhood and at church.

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She said that everyone has a story, and encouraged each of her students to write theirs, both for future generations and for the good of the storyteller.

One of Ruth’s greatest joys was the Write Your Life Story class that she first attended and then taught for over twenty years at the Torrance Adult School; she also taught a similar class at a local church for several years. Getting to know her students and hearing their stories was quite fascinating for her. She said that everyone has a story, and encouraged each of her students to write theirs, both for future generations and for the good of the storyteller. Many life stories were published due to her encouragement. She read and loved them all.

There is so much more that we could add to this obituary as this is just a tiny portion of all that she did throughout her journey here on Earth. Fortunately, Ruth took her own advice and wrote down her own life story and left it in a binder for her family to read. Now that it’s finished, all of those who loved her will say it was an excellent story indeed.