Dates

• Existence: 1907 - 2008

Biography

Pilot, columnist, and volunteer, Ruth Beard Fuller was born in Mt. Ayr , Iowa in 1907 to Henry Clay Beard and Anna Caletta Duncan Beard. Fuller attended Mt. Ayr High School where she played basketball and tennis, wrote for the school newspaper "Ayrplane," and participated in debate and orchestra. After graduating from high school in 1925, Fuller attended the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa ) where she met her future husband Bernard "Barney" A. Fuller. Ruth Beard and Barney Fuller were married in August 1928. Together they raised two daughters in Centerville , Iowa and were co-owners of Fuller Manufacturing Company.

Fuller was the first female pilot in Appanoose County . She began flight instructions in 1943 and received her Private Pilot Certificate at the age of thirty-seven. Fuller traveled with her husband and carried passengers on their Aeronca Chief side-by-side aircraft. Very active in community and volunteer life, Fuller worked with the Democratic National Committee Women for Iowa and the Council of Catholic Women.

Upon retirement in 1976, the Fullers moved from Centerville, Iowa to the Mobile Home Park in North Fort Myers , Florida . They enjoyed daily golf on the Six Lakes Country Club course and Fuller wrote a monthly column, the "Personalities," for Splash , the Six Lakes Country Club's monthly magazine. The Fullers later returned to Iowa where Barney Fuller died in 1997. Ruth Beard Fuller died in January 2008.

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