Ruby Clyde Bunce; 51-Year Ojai Resident

Ruby Clyde Bunce, a longtime Ojai resident whose passion for sewing, gardening and cooking enriched the wardrobes and palates of her family and friends, died Sunday from heart failure. She was 89.

An avid seamstress, Bunce never purchased store-bought clothes for herself and did her best to see that her husband, daughters and six grandchildren didn’t need to either, said Joni Holling, her granddaughter.

Seated at her Phaff sewing machine--with a view of her garden and the Topatopa Mountains--Bunce sewed for her grandchildren throughout their lives, stitching everything from baby clothes to prom dresses.

“To her grandchildren, she smelled like powder and would always have a favorite treat in her pocket,” Holling said.

More often than not, the treats were made from the apple, plum and orange trees in her garden. And for each relative, Bunce would make his or her favorite dish: banana pudding with a Vanilla Wafer crust for granddaughter Christi Andrews, baked chicken with Special K crumbs for Holling.

Bunce’s puddings, pies and preserves served as a primitive calendar of sorts, with her persimmon cookies and puddings announcing the advent of fall.

The youngest daughter of Missouri wheat farmers, she married Clyde Jones in the late 1920s. They settled in Ojai 51 years ago. Several years after Jones’ death, she wed Fred Bunce, the owner of an Ojai lumber company.

Bunce doted on her grandchildren as much as her garden, Holling said. “She kept her money under her bed in a pin box and would slip us a $20, warning us not to tell Grandpa.”

Reluctant to spend money on herself, Bunce visited the hairdresser as often as she did clothing stores, preferring to cut and dye her own hair, Holling said.

That isn’t to say she didn’t like to look her best. Up until Alzheimer’s forced her to move into an Ojai adult-care home in 1991, Bunce was admired for her handmade dresses, matching shoes and trademark faux pearls, Holling said.

“Even if she was just out working in the garden, she’d have her pearls on,” Holling said.

Bunce was preceded in death by her husbands and a daughter, Judy Remsen. She is survived by her daughter, Marlene Acosta of Ojai, and six grandchildren.

Graveside services will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday at Nordhoff Cemetery in Ojai. Funeral arrangements are by Clausen Funeral Home in Ojai.