Ruby (Baker) Finney as a Young Woman

A portrait of Ruby (Baker) Finney.
There is no date on the photo, but it is likely from around 1915,
When she would have been in her mid-teens.

Ruby (Baker) Finney, as a young woman.
This photo is undated, but judging from the clothing, her hair and age,
it is likely from around 1918.

Ruby was the youngest child of Fred Baker and Martha (Woodside) Baker.  She married Bedford Finney with whom she had two children -- Barbara and Bedford Jr.  Though I am not certain of her exact age, I estimate she was born around 1900.  My grandfather, Delbert Marion Saunders, describes his Aunt Ruby as "like a sister to me."  Ruby and Bedford originally lived in Long Beach, but moved to Oakland when my Delbert was in Junior High School.  At the age of 14, Delbert had quit school to work in a wire factory, in order to support his family.  Ruby and her husband talked him into quitting work and returning to school.  They tried their best to support him.  He says of her, in a letter to us the year before he died, "Ruby was so good to me, I hope that where ever she may be, that she will know how much I love and always appreciated what a fine person she was."

Ruby died early in life.  She had joined a fundamentalist church that persuaded her to give up all medications.  In an advanced stage of pregnancy, she was rushed to the hospital with uremic poisoning.  Unfortunately, she did not survive. 

Ruby (Baker) Finney Nursing Photos

Ruby (Baker) Finney, training as a nurse at Alta Bates Sanitorium.
Ruby was my great grandmother Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders's sister,
and my grandfather Delbert's aunt.
The photo is dated February 6, 1920 with a greeting in her own hand on the back:
"Love to all, from Ruby."

Ruby (on the right) with a nursing school classmate, Eng Daniels,
at Alta Bates Sanitorium.  This photo is dated May 1920.

Ruby in training at Alta Bates Sanitorium.
This photo is dated March 11, 1923.

Ruby's nursing school graduation photo.
Unfortunately, this photo is not dated, but it is likely from the mid-1920s.

Another of Ruby's nursing school graduation photos,
Likely from the mid-1920s.

Alta Bates Sanitorium, now called Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, in Oakland, CA, was founded  in 1905 as an eight-bed hospital for women and their infants, by Nurse Alta Alice Miner Bates.  Alta was a prominent early California Nurse Anesthetist, having been one of the first graduates of a nurse's training program out of Eureka, CA.  Alta administered over 14,000 anesthetics during a career lasting more than fifteen years.  Early in the 1900s, she opened her family's home to women and children medical needing care.  Soon after that, with about one hundred dollars, a building design from her father and credit from local merchants, she founded the eight-bed hospital that came to bear her name.  Throughout her career, Alta was active in the nurses' training program at her hospital and likely taught Ruby and her classmates during the early 1920s, while the hospital was expanding its capacity and services.

Delbert Saunders's High School Year Book Page

Delbert Marion Saunders's Senior high school year book page.
He attended Fremont High School, in Oakland, CA.

Grandpa was due to graduate from high school in June 1930.  Sadly, he never finished.  Times were hard and he dropped out of high school to work full time, in order to support his grandmother, with whom he was living.  In his own words (from a letter he wrote to us the year before he died):

"I studied hard in school and managed to skip a grade. I worked as a house boy for a family in Piedmont. Then I worked in a boarding house... They treated me like a slave. From there, I got a job working at an auto laundry, on Fridays and Saturdays, and also ran some poker games on the side. My problem holding that job was the extensive lying I had to do to my school counselor, regarding reasons that I was missing all my Friday classes. This had to end, so I managed to get a job driving for the Manila Meat Market, after school and all day Saturday. The job was punishing because of the long hours involved, and the difficult transportation getting to 82nd Avenue from High School. I had to do my homework on the street car and sometimes fell asleep on the way home, waking up at the end of the line in San Leandro. Never the less, I enjoyed it very much. The people I worked for, a nice German family, treated me just like a member of their own family.  As would be happening all over, the depression was building up and the company went broke; and with it went my job. That ended my chance of going to college. But not all was lost. I had found the love of my life -- your Grandmother.  Of this good fortune, I have been very blessed."

Delbert "Bud" Marion Saunders in his Late Teens

Delbert Marion Saunders.
This photo is actually a small proof, about 1-inch in size,
that I scanned at 300% to make it larger.
It appears to be from a sitting he took as a Senior, for his high-school yearbook.
The photo is not dated, but it is probably from 1930.

Delbert Marion Saunders,
looking strikingly handsome in a tux.
This photo is also a small proof, about 1-inch in size,
that I scanned at 300% to make it larger.
These photos would have been taken while he was and a senior at
Fremont High School, in Oakland, CA.

Delbert Marion Saunders, at the beach.

Two things I love about this photo are the old fashioned swim suit he is wearing and the fact that whomever he was there with is cropped out of the photo. I found this in the front of my grandmother's teen-age photo album, along with the torn photo below.  Clearly, she wanted to save a photo of him, but not of the girl he was with at the time.  How adorable.

Delbert Marion Saunders wearing some dandy knickers.
He on a beach and, from his stance (and knowing what Grandpa loved most),
I'm guessing he was fishing.
Scroll down to reveal the mystery of who is cut out of the photo on the left.

Delbert Marion Saunders, on a beach picnic with a girlfriend.
Looking through my grandfather's High School yearbook,
I found a photo of someone who looks like this girl, who also signed the year book.
Her name was Geneva Proctor.  She may have been his High School sweet heart.

Delbert "Bud" Marion Saunders as a Toddler

Delbert Marion Saunders, as a toddler.
This photo and frame are tiny -- only about 1x1.5 inches.
I found it way down in the bottom of my grandmother's photo box.
My guess is that this is "Bud" at about age 3, in 1913.

Delbert "Bud" Marion Saunders

My paternal grandfather, Delbert "Bud" Marion Saunders, as a small child
with his aunt, Ruby (Baker) Finney, who was Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders's sister.
The back of the photo indicates it was taken in Dillon, Montana, but there is no date.
Judging from the approximate age of Delbert (2-3 years), this photo is probably around 1912-1913.

My paternal grandfather, Delbert "Bud" Marion Saunders,
with his grandmother, Martha (Woodside) Baker.
The back of the photo says it was taken in Bannack, Montana.
There is no date on the photo but it is likely from around 1915.

My paternal grandfather, Delbert "Bud" Marion Saunders
(standing with his hand shading his eyes).

The others in this third photo include Delbert's grandmother, Martha (Woodside) Baker (standing) and her second husband Dan Dwight (standing, cropped) whom she married after her first husband, Fred Baker died.  The younger woman sitting in the center of the photo is Delbert's aunt, Maime (Baker) Myers, who was Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders's sister.  The child on he lap is her son Kenny Michaels, who was a child of her first marriage to Joe Michaels.  Kenny died in childhood and was not spoken of after Mamie remarried Henry Myers, whom she remained married to until death.  The man in the lower right corner is Frank Baker, my grandfather's uncle and Nora Belle (Baker) Saunders's brother.  There is an unknown boy poking his head into the frame of the photo on the left.  There is no indication on the photo who this child is, but I love the expression of curiosity on his face.  There is no location or date indicated on the photo, but it is likely from around 1918.