Ruby Lee Finley, age 86, passed away peacefully at her daughter's home on September 28, 2022. She was born August 22, 1936 in Queen City, Texas to the late U.L. and Ruth Ann Banks. She was the fourth of nine children. She married John Arthur Finley in 1964 and moved to Chicago, Illinois to start her family and a new chapter in the North.

Ruby was a force to be reckoned with! What she lacked in formal education, she made up for in grit and perseverance. She dropped out of high school in the tenth grade to assist her family due to her mother's health issues. She became the second mother in the home making sure all her siblings were taken care of as well as assisting her parents with the daily chores and responsibilities. Ruby then went straight from a farm in Texas to the concrete jungle of Chicago, and she made it! She was a stay-at-home mother and always was there for her family. Although she never learned how to drive, she got everywhere she needed to go – EVERY doctor's appointment, EVERY parent-teacher conference, EVERY school activity that any of her seven children had …never complaining and no questions asked.

Ruby loved children and hers most of all! For many years Ruby worked at Wilson Elementary School as a lunchroom mother where she was surrounded by many neighborhood children who have grown up and have had kids of their own that she had the opportunity to love, discipline and straighten out if needed. A child never went hungry around Mrs. Finley … that included an extra chocolate milk if there was one left (ha ha)! It suited her servant heart. She loved her children and grandchildren unconditionally, and there wasn't anything she wouldn't do for them. She gave her very last, and she was okay with that! As long as her children and grandchildren had, she was satisfied.

Although she was born and raised in Texas, she was a Chicago fan through and through. There was not an afternoon during baseball season where you would not find the Chicago Cubs on the TV or the Chicago Bears on during football season!!!

Left to cherish her memory are her husband, John and her six daughters, Kathy Boone (William), Karen Finley-Griffin (Tim), Joyce Finley-Zambole (Nicholas), Joan Hicks (TD), Judy Finley (Jeff) and Janet Finley. Her only son, Gary Wayne Finley preceded her in death (January 2020). She has twenty-one grandchildren – Kimikai, Brandon, Brittney, Keena, Passion, Porsha, Joshua, Gary Jr., Tramaine, Aaliyah, Jenee, Carmello, William, Tyrin, Brianna, DeAndre, Nico, Jasmyne, Tracee, Santino, and Luciano. She has four surviving siblings: Vernell Banks, Theodore Banks, Charles Banks (Ann) and Carol Smith. In addition, she has several great grandchildren and a host of other relatives and friends who will miss her deeply.

Everyone could learn something from Ruby's life! You might have seen her struggle, but she never gave up!

Visitation Monday, October 10, 2022 2:00 pm until time of service 6:30 pm at Hursen Funeral Home & Crematory, SW corner of Roosevelt & Mannheim Rds, Hillside. Interment October 19, 2022 (Time pending) Mount Zion Cemetery, Queen City Texas.

Funeral info: 800-562-0082