Ruby Patricia Bradley Hammel

Our loving mother passed away gracefully at her home of 66 years, after many of her family and dear friends held her hand and shared their gratitude and love. Our mother is flying free now, sending love and light to all whose lives she touched.

Ruby was born in Malad, Idaho, in 1928. She was the youngest of six children born to Iver Edwin Bradley, from Hyrum, Utah, and Bobbie Routh Pickett, from Garland, Texas. Her mother was the Pocatello Valley School Marm when she met her husband Iver, who had recently acquired a dry farm in the valley as part of the Homestead Act of 1862. The siblings had an idyllic childhood, spending many hours down in the holler, playing hiding games, telling stories, and singing songs. They had jobs to do. One was collecting and cleaning all the eggs their chickens had laid to be sold to Utah Poultry. Their father would load up the flatbed to distribute eggs to Utah, then load the truck with fruit from Brigham City for the children to help peddle when he returned. The flatbed was also their recreational vehicle that took the clan to Yellowstone and other family gatherings in Hyrum.

Ruby’s father died when she was 11. The older siblings got jobs and sent money back home. A few years later, Ruby’s mother got a job at Hill Field Air Force base, and they moved to the avenues in Salt Lake where Ruby attended Bryant Junior High School. At 15, Ruby moved to Albion, Idaho, to stay with her sister when her mother found a job as a tutor in Nevada for a Basque family. People did what they needed to do. Ruby graduated from Albion High School at 17 because she was a bright student and, she said, always had excellent teachers.

She left Albion and moved back to the avenues to begin college at the U of U in 1945. As a young co-ed working in the bookstore, she said she might have flirted a bit with Lee. But it wasn’t until her tennis partner didn’t show up at Reservoir Park that Lee had the nerve to ask her if she wanted to play some tennis. Ruby said, “maybe… are you any good?” She’d discover later that he was #2 on the Ute team.

Ruby and Lee married in December of 1946, and Lee got a job as a school teacher in little towns like Blanding, Loa, and Pioche, Nevada, where teachers were in strong demand. In ’54 it was back to Salt Lake to raise a family of three. Ruby was the youngest mom on the block and would play run-my-sheepy-run with the neighborhood children or take them on hikes in single file down into the Parley’s Canyon gulley. She was ahead of her time in that she planned birthday parties with activities like a track meet or a hike.

Ruby finished her teaching degree when her youngest, Brad, was in first grade. By 1963, she was a teacher at Butler Elementary and later finished her career at Butler Middle after 25 years. She organized mock legislative sessions in which students passed their own bills. Ruby served as the Jordan Education Association President for two years and seven total in leadership.

Ruby was a life-long Christian and one of the earliest members of the Holladay United Church of Christ in 1955; she’d become as much a part of the church as the soaring windows in the sanctuary. She was assistant choir director for 50 years and sang beautiful soprano solos. With the close friends she met in the choir, they formed the calypso group “The Holladayos.” Her children loved her sing-a-longs at vacation Bible School. Ruby used to teach the song, “All God’s Creatures Got a place in the Choir,” and that quote rang out during the service on the Sunday after her death.

Ruby also cared deeply about the Church mission that included social justice. She was an active citizen. She was twice a delegate at Democratic National Conventions. She was active in the JEA Political Action Committee, the Utah Education Association, and the Political Action Committee of the AARP; she also served as the president of the Women's Legislative Council and the League of Women Voters, both nonpartisan groups. She was proud of making a difference and urged others to do the same.

And of course, she was one of the First Ladies of Tennis in Utah. She had quite the “volley,” loved playing doubles competitively, and taught others through her early 80’s. Lee and Ruby organized and ran the Tribune No-Champs for 25 years, and she was a strong partner with Lee when he managed the Salt Lake Tennis Club from 1957-1964. She had her own teaching program during her later retirement years and had to hire extra coaches because she had too many students sign up. Ruby and Lee and her 3 children were the Utah Tennis Family of the Year in 1964, the Intermountain Family of the Year in 2000, and the National Tennis Family of the Year in 2001. Ruby was inducted into the Utah Tennis Hall of Fame for her contributions to tennis in 2004.

And Bridge. The game was part of her life until the end, in 5 groups that played once a month. One group even kept it up during the pandemic but didn’t tell their children. She told fortunes at church fundraisers and taught her children to do card tricks. Ruby was clever, curious, caring and was given her father’s dry wit.

She is loved, remembered and admired by her 3 children, Laury Hammel (Robin Young), Carolee Hammel (Tom Barber) and Brad Hammel, her 10 grandchildren (Sara, Jed, Eliza, Jason, Sam, Rosanna, Vanessa, Brent, Catharine, and Bobbie) and her 13 great grandchildren (Julian, Daniel, Anthony, Tati, Zarina, Tayzia, James, Charlie, Josie, Miles, Matty, Teddy, Lucas).

Our sincere appreciation to Inspiration Hospice, who were very prompt to attend to any special need in the last year of her life and Senior Helpers who sent Thea four times a week. Most importantly thank you for all the friends who visited and gave her rides to church and bridge.

In Lieu of flowers please consider donating to the League of Women Voters lwvutah.org/donations or Holladay United Church of Christ holladayucc.org in Ruby Hammel’s name.

The viewing and graveside was held on November 4, 2025 to say our final goodbyes.

There will be a celebration of Life in the late winter or early spring of 2026 at HUCC, and all will be invited for those who didn’t learn of her passing.