Doris Laverne Massey-Ruud

Doris Laverne (Schauls) Massey-Ruud was born in Bemidji on August 29, 1938, to John and Dorothy (Ashby) Schauls. She spent her childhood on a farm in Puposky–a middle child with five siblings. Next to a small lake, surrounded by forests, she climbed trees, learned to do backbends in the yard, and played in the barn when not doing chores. For a period, she attended a one-room schoolhouse taught by her mother, helping her fire up the stove heater before class each day–even staying overnight in the school in bad weather. She attended Bemidji High School. Shortly after high school, Doris traveled West, then eloped to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with a man with four children. A year later, her own son was born and she found herself, at 20, the mother of five children. Two more daughters followed. The family lived in Washington, California, and Colorado.

In 1969, she divorced and brought her three children to Bemidji, while her husband’s children remained with him. Finding herself suddenly a single mom, she went back to school to become an LPN and started work in Bemidji Hospital, remaining until retirement. She was known there as a compassionate and diligent nurse, presented with employee-of-the-month and employee-of-the-year awards during her career.

She was a truly resourceful woman who purchased a small house in disrepair and turned it into a warm and welcoming home through self-taught carpentry skills. She insulated and walled the attic to create rooms for her children, replaced the furnace, remodeled the bathroom and kitchen, and landscaped the yard and garden.

At 48, she and her friend Shyla Johnson took a trip of a lifetime, exploring Europe with backpacks and Eurail passes. Along their way, they had many adventures and visited Doris’s son in France and Shyla’s son in Germany. In her early fifties, she met her future husband, Dale, in a painting class and they quickly became inseparable, marrying in 1991. Together, they explored the outdoors in all seasons and explored the US in a camper van.

Doris spent her later life developing her talents for painting nature scenes, making quilts for her family, friends, and church charities, and taking long daily walks. Throughout her life she maintained a strong Christian faith anchored by daily Bible meditations.

Doris is preceded in death by her husband, Dale Ruud; her daughter, Jenny Shafer; her parents; and her siblings, Jack Schauls, Alice Martin, and Margaret “Peggy” Phillippe.

She is survived by children Kevin (Dita Obler) Massey of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Carla (Scott) Morgenstern of Park Rapids; grandchildren Dashiell Massey of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Kassia Massey of Aarhus, Denmark, Jeff (Tyeisha) Kosmicki of Omaha, Nebraska, Ben Kosmicki of Grand Island, Nebraska, Breanna Kosmicki of Lincoln, Nebraska, Angie Frost of Park Rapids, and Eric Morgenstern of Falls City, Nebraska; five great grandchildren; and siblings Betty Daniels of Waite Park, and Richard Schauls of Chanhassen.

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