Newspaper cuttings from the Eastern Cape.
Grocotts Mail, Friday, December 9, 1988
Prolific writer dies
A memorial service was held in the Trinity Presbyterian Church this week for Mrs. Ruth KEYS-TRANSFELT, 93, who died in Umkomaas last week.
Her only son, Mr. Dennis BUTLER, former Headmaster of Kingswood college, and Mrs. BUTLER, revisited Grahamstown for the memorial service and then went on with the ashes to Kuruman where they will be buried in the grave of Mr. BUTLER's father, 67 years after his death.
Mrs. KEYS-TRANSFELT was born Ruth BROWN in Vryburg in 1895. She was described as a "lively lass" who enjoyed music, hockey, tennis and reading. She spent a year at the Wesleyan High School here in 1911 and remembered the horror of the Blaauwkrantz Bridge train disaster. She married Harold Challcombe BUTLER in 1920. He was a bank clerk promoted to accountant in the Kuruman branch where he died the following year, four months after the birth of their son.
The then Mrs. BUTLER shouldered the burden not only of her child but also of her aging parents who were left penniless by the bankruptcy of the family business in Vryburg. For 12 years she was the sole source of income in the family. She earned money through more than a dozen activities, baking, sewing, invigilating, librarianship, book selling and, above all, writing.
As Ruth BUTLER and then Ruth MACKENZIE she had more than 400 articles in print, including short stories, poems and children's stories in publication like The Outspan, The Homestead, The Cape Argus and Natal Mercury. For more than 40 years she played bowls for the Albany Bowling Club and later the Grahamstown Bowling Club, of which she was made an honorary Life Member.
She was secretary-treasure her of The Red Cross for seven years and a member of the congregation of the Trinity Presbyterian Church for 59 years.A one-time president, she was honorary Life Member of the Women's Association. Brookshaw was the home of Mrs. KEYS-TRANSFELDT for 11 years before she joined the BUTLER's in Umkomaas in January last year. .
Best wishes
Becky
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Researching: HENWICK; HILL; HORN(E); MEREDITH; DEYZEL; LARSEN; WILLSON; LYNAR; HENNING; STERLEY; THECK; BEST; BRAUN, GREENER; GLANVILLE; VAN ZYL
