Janice Ruth Paxton was born on December 31, 1946. Homer was disappointed that she was not the New Year’s Baby, since 8:30 p.m. was a little too early. He was happier when he found that 1946 was the first year that a baby born after April 15 could be an income tax deduction. At that point, the family was living in a 3rd floor walk-up apartment in Passaic, NJ, and Homer had to carry Ruth and the baby up all 3 flights of stairs when they came home from the hospital. They moved shortly to a first floor apartment on Sixth Avenue in Passaic where the family lived until after Byron Carl Paxton was born on December 12, 1950.
In the fall of 1955, when Byron was not quite 5, Ruth and Homer decided that he should not start Kindergarten yet, even though his December birthday beat the January 1 deadline. Ruth began substituting at Eastern Christian School in Clifton, where Janice was in 4th grade. She arranged that when she was subbing Byron would be allowed to be in the Kindergarten class for the day. At one point she had a long-term subbing assignment for an elderly teacher who had broken her arm. The following September, when Byron officially started Kindergarten, he lasted about 2 weeks before the teacher had had it with him telling her how to run the class – he’d spent way too long there the previous year – so they moved him up to First Grade. So much for holding him back a year. Ruth substituted all during that year, too.
By the end of 1956 Homer’s company had built a new research facility in Wayne, NJ, so a car became a necessity. They bought a used green Nash and decided to look for a home to buy out closer to Wayne. Ruth got her NJ Teaching Certificate in September 1957 and a job teaching in the Preakness School in Wayne. As a part of her negotiations with Wayne, she was allowed to bring Janice and Byron to attend school in Preakness tuition free beginning in the fall of 1957. She taught there for 1957-58 and 58-59. In 1958 Ruth and Homer built a new home at 126 Seminole Avenue in Oakland. In the fall of 1959 Ruth began teaching in the Oakland schools, first at Heights School, then at Dogwood Hills, Valley School, and finally at Dogwood Hills again until her retirement in 1983.
The 1960’s were busy for the Paxton family. Janice went to Ramapo Regional High School, Byron played Little League baseball and town football. Ruth was, at various times, PTA president and OEA (Oakland Education Association) president. She worked on contract negotiations, which were called “collective begging” until 1968 when the Collective Bargaining bill was passed. She sang in the choir at Ponds Reformed Church and served on the Consistry. She represented the OEA at the Representative Assembly and Ponds Church at the Reformed Church of America convention more than once.
Homer was downsized from US Rubber after 22 years of working for them. He found a new position with Manhattan Rubber Company fairly quickly, and at a higher salary. In about 1966 Homer had a serious illness that resulted in his hospitalization. At one point they thought he had liver cancer, although that was later ruled out. He spent some time in rehabilitation for alcoholism at Hazeldon.
Janice graduated from High School in 1964 and went on to Hollins College in Virginia, where she majored in Mathematics and graduated in 1968. After graduation, she went to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst to get an MA in Mathematics in 1970.
Byron was in the first class at Indian Hills High School, which opened in 1964. He graduated in 1968 and then went on to a computer programming school where he learned to program back when it was all zeros and ones.
In 1964 the whole family went out to Nebraska for a visit and then on out to Wyoming to fish in Ten Sleep Canyon. In 1968 Byron and Ruth went out to the Pont’s Anniversary party.
Ruth’s husband, Homer William Paxton, passed away on June 4, 1972 at the Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, NJ after a brief illness. He was cremated and buried in the Paxton family plot in Nebraska.
Ruth began her travels in the fall of 1972. She visited all of her siblings and their families and traveled all over the world as soon as she retired.
She was thrilled when Byron and his second wife, Anne G. Paxton, gave her grandchildren – Elizabeth Anne, December 6, 1977 and Matthew Aaron, February 4, 1981.
