Ruby Lois (B.D.) Colson

Ruby Lois Burdett Colson, known all her adult life as “B.D.,” died September 9 at Eaton Community Palliative Care in Charlotte, MI under the care of Great Lakes Hospice. She was pre-deceased by her husband, Rev. Z William (Bill) Colson, who died in July 2014. She was 91. She was born at home on a Georgia farm to Forrest Wayne Burdett and Veva Ethel Harrison. When she was 12, the family moved to St. Louis, Missouri when her father’s employer, the Coca-Cola Company, transferred him to help open a new plant. She received her B.S. in Nursing from Washington University in 1946 and worked in several departments at Barnes Hospital until she found her calling in obstetrics. She worked next at Philadelphia Lying-In, then to University Hospital in New Haven, CT for more training in “natural” childbirth. After her children were grown, she taught courses for LPNs at Lansing Community College and worked for the Eaton County Health Department. B. D. loved being a nurse and especially loved helping mothers bring their babies into the world. If she had any time in her busy workday she could be found in the hospital nursery cooing over the newborns. Having grown to appreciate New England and learned how to ski, she moved to Laconia, New Hampshire. There she was introduced to Bill, the associate pastor of the Congregational Church in Quincy, Massachusetts, and they were married on January 31, 1959. The couple moved to Chicago, Illinois to serve the Forest Glen Congregational Church. Both of their children, Sarah and Mark, were born in Chicago. In 1966, the family moved to Charlotte where Bill began a ministry at the First Congregational Church, UCC, that would span the next 22 years. In Charlotte B.D. defined her own style for the role of minister’s wife. People in the congregation and the larger community remember her quiet care and kindness at their times of greatest need. She was always there when people needed her for a shoulder to cry on, conversation and a cup of coffee, a hot casserole, transportation, babysitting, one of her signature coffee cakes – whatever was necessary to ease someone’s burden. She was involved in all church activities through the Women’s Fellowship. As part of her work with the Charlotte Women’s Club, she and her friend Ardel Nelson started Mobile Meals. She was always active in her children’s schools where she was a frequent “room mother,” volunteer, fundraiser, and parent representative to the Curriculum Council. B. D. was a voracious reader and a member of many book groups. She and her husband were both intensely interested in world events and dinnertime conversation with family and friends was most often about the important issues of the day. B.D. loved to knit, cook and bake and was legendary for her devoted correspondence. Through letters, notes, birthday and anniversary cards, she maintained contact with friends in all the places she ever lived, for which she was much admired and beloved. Even more than she loved nursing, B.D. loved being a mother and a grandmother. After several years of interim ministries in Warren and Richmond, Michigan and St. Louis, Missouri, B. D. announced that what she really wanted in her retirement was to live close to her only grandchildren. B.D. and Bill moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan and she provided part-time childcare for her twin granddaughters. When their health and mobility began to decline, they moved again to Oberlin, Ohio to stay close to family. In Oberlin they were welcomed into their final church family at the First Church in Oberlin, UCC. After caring for her husband until his death, she moved to Great Lakes Christian Homes in Holt, Michigan to live near Mark’s family and spend the final year of her life in the company of her youngest grandchildren. B.D. is both mourned and celebrated by her daughter, Sarah Colson (John Cavanaugh) and son, Mark Colson (Janet Ehrlich Colson) and her grandchildren, Katherine, Sophie and Nora Cavanaugh and Adele, Forrest and Fiona Colson. She was predeceased by her husband, parents and only brother, V. Revis Burdett. She is survived by Revis’ wife, Norma (Burdett) Park of Rolla, Missouri. A memorial service will be held Saturday, October 3 at 11:00 a.m. at the First Congregational Church, UCC in Charlotte. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to Oberlin Community Services, 285 S. Professor St., Oberlin, OH 44074.