Simply after the summer time session resulted in late June, Coronary heart O’ the Hills camper Sydney Sutton despatched this photograph to the camp’s director, Jane Ragsdale, who was killed within the July 4 flooding in Kerr County, Texas.
Erika Sutton
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Erika Sutton
Jane Ragsdale spent her summers by the Guadalupe, the very river that killed her per week in the past immediately within the catastrophic July Fourth flood. Point out her identify in Kerrville, Texas, this week, and folk are inclined to do two issues: tear up and smile.
“I imply I am unable to let you know how many individuals, acquaintances of mine say, ‘My expensive, expensive buddy died.’ After which they stated, ‘Do you know Jane Ragsdale?’ and I say, ‘Yeah, I did,’ ” stated Karen Taylor, who lives in close by Hunt, Texas. For her, Ragsdale was West Kerr County personified.
“Everyone’s pleasant right here, however she embodied that friendliness and generosity and love for others. I simply can’t think about life with out her,” Taylor stated.
Ragsdale, who was in her late 60s, did lots of issues, however she’s greatest often called the proprietor and director of Coronary heart O’ the Hills camp for ladies. She was born into the enterprise.
Jane Ragsdale ran the Coronary heart O’ the Hills camp for ladies in Kerr County, Texas. The camp was between classes when the deluge hit. The one particular person killed there was Ragsdale.
Kerrville Day by day Instances
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Kerrville Day by day Instances
Her household purchased a boys’ camp, Camp Stewart in 1966, the 12 months Ragsdale turned 9. They purchased Coronary heart O’ the Hills a few decade later. Ragsdale helped run it from the beginning. By 1988, she was in cost.
In contrast to Camp Mystic, the ladies camp the place a minimum of 27 perished when the deluge hit, Coronary heart O’ the Hills was between classes. The one particular person killed there was Ragsdale.
“I’ve by no means in my life met somebody like Jane,” stated Kathy Simmons, who was a very good buddy of Ragsdale’s.
Simmons was at Coronary heart O’ the Hills selecting up her granddaughter simply the week earlier than the flood, on the final night time the camp was open.
“We had a candlelight service on the river at 9 p.m., and it was so stunning. There have been prayers and there have been songs,” Simmons stated. “Jane at all times led the kids in songs. And each a type of women and people counselors completely idolized her.”
After Coronary heart O’ the Hills camper Sydney Sutton despatched a photograph of herself to Jane Ragsdale, the camp director wrote this letter again to Sydney.
Erika Sutton
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Erika Sutton
The summer time camps on the Guadalupe River in Kerr County are establishments. Generations of ladies and boys undergo them, usually forming life-long attachments. Simmons thought of Ragsdale the center and soul of her camp, each non secular chief and educator.
“I imply, Jane taught these women change a tire, experience a horse, swim, shoot a gun, archery, cooking. I imply, the requirements of life,” Simmons stated.
Within the low season, when she wasn’t operating the camp, Ragsdale usually traveled to Guatemala, the place she volunteered as an interpreter and a challenge organizer. It was mission work she began doing when she was 19 and finding out journalism. She was a badass. However she was additionally in regards to the sweetest particular person on the town.
“Jane was probably the most real, type, sincere folks and really clever, very heat,” remembers Mindy Wendele, president and CEO of the Kerrville Space Chamber of Commerce. “She had a smile that you just knew Jane Ragsdale was smiling at you.”
Wendele grew up with Ragsdale, who she describes as an actual go-getter: deeply concerned within the Chamber of Commerce, a board member of the native liberal arts school, a category chief in highschool.
“Anytime that we have been out with Jane and her household at Coronary heart O’ the Hills, we had only a fabulous time, simply fabulous reminiscences on the market,” Wendele stated.
Now, with a number of the camps and virtually all the riverfront in ruins, Kerr County faces a monumental clean-up and rebuilding effort.
One more reason to overlook Jane Ragsdale.
“Oh, she could be on the market volunteering. She could be on the market clearing property,” Simmons stated. “She would have her boots on, her gloves on, she could be serving to each dang soul that wanted to be helped.”
So the flood took considered one of Kerr County’s most succesful residents, however Ragsdale’s affect on the group and the ladies who got here by way of Coronary heart O’ the Hills camp goes to final a very long time.
