Riverside-area environmental, civil rights activist Ruth Anderson Wilson dies at 98 – Press Enterprise
Civil rights activist and environmental activist Ruth Anderson Wilson has died at the age of 98.
In 1966, The Press-Enterprise portrayed Wilson under the heading “Stepping Back – Here Comes a Hurricane”. For decades she fought for the waterways of Southern California and the civil rights of women and blacks.
Cleveland-born Wilson, who died on May 2, married at the start of World War II at the age of 19 and welded ships for Bethlehem Steel in Northern California while her husband, Fred Bratten, served in the Navy. After the war, with education paid for by the GI Bill, the couple ended up in Riverside County, first in Norco and then in Riverside, where they raised two daughters and a son. She later moved to Jurupa Valley.
“She really is one of those greatest generation women who have simply embodied the entire course of what we now call modern life,” said her youngest daughter, Jill Darling.
But Wilson wanted to be more than just a wife and mother, according to Darling: As a girl, her mother promised herself that she would make a difference in the world.
She helped found the Riverside Chapter of the League of Women Voters and, with other league members, started a Save the Santa Ana River movement that became the Tri-County Conservation League. In 1966, she and other members helped prevent the Santa Ana River from being paved like the Los Angeles River. In 2002 the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority presented Wilson with the first Ruth B. Anderson Wilson Award, which is presented annually for contributions to the Santa Ana River environment.
“She had an arrangement with my father that as long as she was home by 3:30 pm she could do whatever she wanted with her day,” Darling said. “I just grew up thinking that my parents did.”
When Riverside County’s bus drivers went on strike instead of helping integrate schools, Wilson and other mothers drove their students to school in their Volkswagen vans. In the 1970s she worked for LGBT civil rights.
“She gave me that I can do anything I get on my mind,” said Darling. “There are problems out there and you should go out there and solve them. There is nothing that should hold you back, not even from being a woman. “
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Wilson served on the boards of the Riverside County Parks Commission, Clean Air Now, the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board, the Prado Dam Study, and the Southern California Watershed Fire Council. She also volunteered or supported the Riverside Art Museum, historic downtown, and the Riverside Library.
Wilson lost an offer for Riverside County Supervisor in 1971 after the death of her husband, Supervisor Paul Anderson. Years later, she was elected to the board of directors of Rubidoux Community Services, where she served six terms before retiring in 2018 at the age of 95.
But she never slowed down, working with Habitat for Humanity to create shelters and habitats for migratory ducks after construction destroyed the wetlands they relied on.
Wilson leaves behind her certified partner Arthur James “Jim” Montgomery, son Jonathon Bratten, daughter Jill Darling, two grandchildren, two grandchildren, and nieces and nephews.
A memorial service for Wilson will be held on Saturday, July 24th at 1 p.m. at Calvary Presbyterian Church, 4495 Magnolia Ave., Riverside.
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