Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: A strong lady leaves us

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2004 | 8:54 a.m.

Mike O'Callaghan is the Las Vegas Sun executive editor.

"IF YOU FEEL uncomfortable with something in your column or news story, then take it out. Trust your instincts and past experience," Ruthe Deskin advised me. I had told her about my negative gut reaction to a bit of information sent in by a usually reliable newspaper source. Her advice was followed then and still remains as a guide when writing.

During the past 25 years I have had to return to Ruthe many times for advice and guidance. Her sensitivity to the needs of the people of this area and her understanding of young people made her a most valuable source of information. Her passing from this life has left a vacuum in my life and the lives of all who knew her as a kind and strong lady.

The late Harry Paille, one of Southern Nevada's most talented high school basketball coaches, told me that he first learned the finer points of the game from Ruthe. When attending UNR, she had run a city playground basketball program to help pay her tuition.

During World War II, she worked in a military ammunition depot in Herlong, Calif., which is a reasonable drive northwest of Reno. Visiting with her about that experience always brought out her pride in what she accomplished during those war years. Evidently, according to her award for meritorious service, she was also an exceptional worker. Ruthe, like many of her generation raised in rural USA, bled red, white and blue.

Despite world travels with her husband, the late Jim Deskin who was secretary of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, she was a home girl. She cheered the Runnin' Rebels and the people she bowled with every week. She gained recognition as an outstanding bowler and her growing knowledge of basketball astounded many of our local sports writers and fans. Ruthe's love for rural Nevada and tasty fresh trout from cold streams never faded.

During the long years that Ruthe read every letter to the editor, she never lost interest in the writers and their views. Twelve years ago she brought me a letter that began as follows: "I have made my mind up. If I still have no work by the 17th of January, I will end this pathetic life.

"Everyone says get help, but no one will help. It's as if they think some outside entity will be able to do something."

The letter ended: "I will not sign my name, but hope you will print it anyway. If not, then my last stamp was a waste. Signed -- Tired."

"This person needs help now," Ruthe told me. Then she gave me the assignment to change my column the next day and answer Tired's letter. She told me that an answer couldn't wait because she sensed true despair in the writer's life. I did the best I could and ended the column: "Tired, don't be selfish. There are others who need your help and in them you may well find comfort and even some reasonable understanding of your own role in life. A living Tired is of much more value to himself or herself and others than is a dead Selfish."

The column was acceptable to Ruthe, but for the next several days she checked the police records for any possible suicides. There weren't any, and again Ruthe's sensitivity to the needs of Sun readers continued our legacy as a newspaper that cares.

The guiding hand of Ruthe results in stories that come from the lips of past and present reporters. She had a wealth of knowledge and skills that were available to all who asked her advice. Syndicated cartoonist Mike Smith was one of many who profited from her understanding and personal interest in his activities.

Ruthe's two daughters, Nancy and Terry, were the solid foundation of her life. Both girls were close to their mother and brought her much joy. Her grandsons Ron and David Woodbury brought even more joy to her life. The arrival of great-grandson Ryan Woodbury was the beginning of another joyful chapter in her long life. About the only time she ever fretted about them was when Ron started skydiving and eventually completed several thousand jumps.

The Ruthe Deskin in my life has been a saucy lady who loved her family, co-workers, Las Vegas and competitive sports. A bit of this was expressed in her memo to publisher Hank Greenspun 43 years ago this month. After visiting boxer Gene Fullmer's championship training camp she wrote: "In order to prove the Sun is an impartial, objective newspaper, you can see why I need the afternoon off. I couldn't visit Fullmer's training quarters and not show up at Sugar Ray's. Now could I?"