Made, donated by Libey aunt: Quilt on bill at hospital benefit auction

Among items up for auction Saturday at the hospital foundation benefit will be a quilt donated by Ruth Libey Kribbs, 92, Moberly, Mo. An aunt of Gary Libey of Colfax, she donated the quilt as a gift of appreciation for the treatment her oldest brother, Herk Libey, received in his final days at Whitman Hospital. Herk Libey, Gary Libey”s father, died on Valentine’s Day 10 years ago.

A retired Spokane police officer, Herk was treated at the Colfax hospital and Colfax nursing home during his final days.

Ruth and Herk were among 10 siblings who were raised in the foothills of the Moscow Mountains during the hard times of the 1930s.

“All of us kids were raised in the hills of the Moscow Mountains in very hard times during the Great Depression. I remember we were so poor that I chewed the gum left under the school desks that others had left behind,” Ruth noted.

Ruth met her future husband, Harold Kribbs, while picking apples. He served in World War II after they were married, and when he returned they bought a filling station with two pumps in Moberly.

“I raised three kids, pumped gas, cooked meals and we saved every extra penny,” Ruth wrote.

Herk Libey was the oldest of the 10 Libey children, and his sister credits him with being a key factor in the large family’s survival.

“We would never have made it through the Depression without his love and support. We missed him mostly when he went to the CCC camps,” Ruth noted.

Libey Road which runs out of Viola in Latah County is the area where the family of Clyde and Ona Libey was raised.

Mrs. Kribbs took up embroidery and cross stitch in her senior years. As she got into her 90s she gave up finer work and stuck to doing cross-stitch.

She finished stitching 36 blocks for the quilt and sent them off to her niece, Patty LaPalme of Leesburg, Fla., who arranged to have the blocks quilted in Ohio.

Patty later brought the finished quilt to Ruth in Missouri.

They agreed it would be a perfect gift to the hospital in Colfax in memory of Ruth’s brother.

They sent the quilt to Gary Libey and he turned it over to the foundation.

The quilt will be among 40 items on the bill Saturday for the hospital foudation’s 20th annual dinner and auction which will be at Hill Ray Plaza beginning at 6 p.m. Theme for benefit event this year is “Twenty Years of Elegance.”