Ruby Martinson, age 95, of Vermillion, SD, died peacefully at the Vermillion Care Center on December 5, 2021 with her granddaughter Shelley at her side. She was in reasonably good health until her stroke on December 3. 2021. Ruby was born to Henry and Ragna Peterson on August 1, 1926, in Meckling, South Dakota. She had a humble childhood and attended Meckling school through the eighth grade. She married Wilbur Tripp and they had three children, Terry Tripp, Douglas Tripp, and Sally Tripp. She remarried to Theodore (Ted) Martinson on August 13, 1948, and had one daughter, Sheryl Kavanaugh (Martinson). Ted and Ruby were happily married until his death in 2002. Many visited their apartment at 200 Hall Street where she lived for almost 50 years until she entered the nursing home (at her request) in the fall of 2019. Ruby was always ready to receive visitors and you were treated with a delicious baked good, a cup of coffee, and good conversation. She loved to clean not only her own home but spent many years cleaning for others in town. Ruby had a big heart, especially when it came to children, so it was common for neighborhood children to visit her for a cookie or bar. She always had a smile on her face and a hearty laugh to go with it. She will be missed by her family and all who knew her. Ruby was preceded in death by her husband, Theodore Martinson, her parents, Henry and Ragna Peterson, her brothers, James and Bob Peterson, her sisters, Melva Wastlund (Peterson) and Sharon Madsen (Peterson), her children, Terry Tripp, Douglas Tripp, Sally Tripp, and Sheryl Kavanaugh (Martinson), niece, Arlis Johnson (Sorensen), and her grandson, Terry Wayne Tripp. Survivors include: her grandchildren, Brian Kavanaugh, Michelle “Shelley” Kavanaugh, Lacey Cullum (Tripp), Trena Tripp, and Amber Platt (Tripp), her nieces, Cindy Fenton (Wastlund), Karen Prusa (Sorensen), Marsha Martinson, Marilyn Trudeau (Sorensen), Wendy Newcomb (Peterson), her nephews Jack Martinson, Nels Sorensen, and Larry Dwyer, and many cousins, great grandchildren, and great nieces and nephews. Ruby will be buried at Bluff View Cemetery in Vermillion with her husband, Ted Martinson, and their daughter, Sheryl Martinson.