Ruth Evelyn Williams

Ruth Evelyn Williams, third of the four children and first daughter of Alice Branson and John Henry Williams, war born 25 January 1911 at Mount Bullion, Mariposa County, CA. Mount Bullion was the site of one of the most enduring hardrock mines of the area, and John worked there for many years as a miner. Unfortunately even that robust site could not sustain itself. With the gold industry collapsing all across the Mother Lode, John gave up on his profession and turned to farming. The household was reestablished on acreage near Manteca, San Joaquin County, CA. In 1914, the family became complete with the birth of Ruth’s sister Frances.

Ruth was only eleven years old when her father died. By then, her brothers Vernon and Ray were sufficiently grown that they probably assisted their widowed mother to keep the farm going for a few more years. In late 1925 neighbor Milton James Henry suffered the loss of his wife, the former Lena Viola Early. Alice and Milton filled the voids in each other’s lives by becoming spouses in the autumn of 1928. If the Williams land had not been sold earlier, it was disposed of then, and Alice moved to Milton’s farm. Ruth was by then in her late teens and probably only became part of the combined household for one year -- her final year of high school. She attended Manteca High School. While there, she was on the staff of the yearbook, The Tower, her responsibility being art. The photograph of Ruth reproduced at the top upper left of this biography is from her junior year and appeared on the page of the yearbook staff photos for the 1928 edition of The Tower.

Ruth left for Oakland, where she attended the California School of Arts and Crafts. She specialized in watercolor painting. She continued studying with top watercolor teachers throughout life even though she rapidly established a reputation of her own. Her work would come to be exhibited at San Francisco galleries. (An example of her work is the Mendocino County coast scene shown at lower right, one of many of Ruth’s watercolors to be reproduced as a postcard.)

With her artistic reputation and celebrity still in her future, Ruth came back home during her early twenties and taught school -- probably art -- in Stockton, the “big city” of San Joaquin County. She continued to reside in Manteca, but spent most of her waking hours in Stockton. It was probably this interval that she met her husband-to-be. He was Edwin Alexander Carlson, son of Alexander Carlson and Lucy A. Rowe. Often known as Babe Carlson (perhaps because he was the youngest of Alex and Lucy’s five children -- all boys), he had been born 6 December 1906 in Fort Bragg, Mendocino County, CA and had subsequently been raised there. His father had passed away in 1919, but Fort Bragg had continued to be home to the household throughout Babe’s upbringing. His brother Glenn went on to spend decades as a Fort Bragg dentist -- just as Ruth’s stepbrother Lloyd L. Henry went on to spend decades as a dentist in Manteca. Just how Babe and Ruth met is not clear. It may have happened by chance due to simple proximity. Babe took to roaming as a young man, working briefly as a musician in Fresno, Fresno County, CA before moving to Stockton, where his brother Lucien had established himself as an optometrist. This would have brought him into Ruth’s sphere. The only question is whether the pair may have already become acquainted earlier. Glenn Carlson and Lloyd Henry may have known each other from dental school and somehow they served as the means of introduction. The final possiblity is that the pair met in Mendocino or Fort Bragg. Ruth’s stepfather M.J. Henry had spent some of his youth in Mendocino County and it could be the Williams/Henry clan had the habit of vacationing there. The couple were wed on the first weekend of October, 1934 (on the fifth, the sixth, or the seventh of the month) in Reno, NV.

Edwin obtained a job as a surveyor for the U.S. Department of the Interior. At first he was obliged to accept whatever assignments he was offered and this led to a mobile period in the young couple’s life. For example, the 1940 census finds them in a rural part of Contra Costa County, CA. However, as soon as they could manage to do so, the pair were able to settle in Mendocino County, where they remained for good. Babe became a forester -- which is to say he continued with the same sort of occupation in that a great deal of the work he did was surveying. Babe was also a staunch patron of the arts. Together he and Ruth were among the original members of the Mendocino Arts Center.

Despite what appears to have been an excellent marital bond, Babe and Ruth did not have children. The union ended prematurely when Babe was struck down by a heart attack 17 July 1959. He was on his first day of work with a new employer and died three miles up Camp Creek Road in Humboldt County, CA in the general vicinity of the tiny community of Orleans. This spot is in the far northeastern corner of Humboldt County between the Hoopa Indian Reservation and the boundary with Siskiyou County, and even today is remote. He was so far from civiliation and his employment situation so recent that a number of intermediaries were required in order to locate Ruth and inform her of the sad event, a process that took about twenty-four hours. (Partly as a result of this, Edwin’s official death record was processed on the eighteenth and bears that date. The eighteenth was used as his death date in this website biography until the real date was discovered in April, 2010 in the 18 July 1959 edition of the Humboldt Standard.

Despite being widowed at less than fifty years of age, Ruth would not marry again. She spent the early period of widowhood in the coastal community of Little River just south of the village of Mendocino. Gifts made to honor Babe’s memory made possible the construction of the first studio at the Mendocino Arts Center. Fittingly, it was called the Carlson Studio. Ruth sustained her involvement in the center by serving a six-year term on the first board of governors. She was also an early supporter and contributor to the Rotary Club’s Art for Youth Auction. Her paintings were always the subject of lively bidding, with the funds received adding substantially to the scholarships for aspiring young artists. Ruth was also a charter member of the Mendocino County Art Association and a member of the Society of Western Artists.

Over the years, Ruth tutored many students. Often she would conduct these lessons outdoors along the coast. Her favorite mode was “plein air” painting, i.e. she would set up an easel and canvas in the open air and render a view of the setting, completing the work in a single session. She would inevitably take along a bottle of wine. She was known to sometimes get quite tipsy by the end of the day. She would encourage her students to enjoy a glass or two with her -- this perhaps helps account for some of the popularity of her classes.

Ruth’s most noteworthy legacy was her decision to found the Ruth Carlson Gallery in Mendocino. Her sister Fran Young, who had come up to Mendocino County from Delano, Kern County after being widowed in the early 1960s, operated the business with her. The establishment was renowned and was at the head of the list of galleries tourists would visit when coming to the Mendocino coast.

Ruth passed away at her home in the Surfwood development just north of the village of Mendocino 11 March 1978. Graveside services were held at Stockton Rural Cemetery Tuesday the 14th. Her grave lies next to that of Edwin and also adjacent to those of her mother and father. She was the only one of Alice and John’s four kids to be buried there. However, Stockton Rural Cemetery is also the site of many other Branson-clan graves, including the graves of her grandparents Thomas Branson and Frances Bauer.

The gallery survived for decades more, under the directorship of Fran. It eventually became Gallery One and did not cease operation until the year 2000, the year before Fran passed away.

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