Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Purifoy talks about life as small town poet

By John Nelson

This is the story of a songwriter/poet.

Once upon a time, after she and her husband, Arvil, married in 1938, Ruby W. Purifoy got to thinking on love and wrote a song about being "intoxicated with moonbeams, intoxicated with love  "Intoxicated with You."

Perry Como, singer/songwriter famous a few decades back, picked up on this and wanted to write the music and record it. But times were hard and the $120 fee that came with the proposed project just was not anywhere to be had.

"Perry Como even wanted to develop the idea into a movie," Mrs. Purifoy said Wednesday. "I've had four writing contracts and I was invited to join the Writer's Guild when Johnny Cash was in it. But we just did not have that kind of money and everybody wanted to charge a person back then to develop their musical talents. That is life... so many wasted opportunities."

Mrs. Purifoy, 86, has written nearly 200 poems, many of which were developed into songs. She lives with her husband, Arvil, 87, on North Birch Street in Whelen Springs. A lot of her poems are sermon-like in form, as she is a devoted Christian.

"I feel like there is a message in everything I write," she said. "My husband plays keyboards and he learns the melody of each poem/song so as to finish my work."

Purifoy said, "People told me you just could not pick those tunes from her head on a guitar but I know you can. If I can do it on a keyboard, somebody can on a guitar."

Mrs. Purifoy recalled another audition opportunity for the Everly Brothers. She wrote them a song called "Mom's Rocking and Dad's Rolling". Don Williams sang and Ruby got cold feet.

"I was the first rock and roll song writer but chickened out to singing it," she said. "Every song I have ever written, as well as the poems that were made to songs, speaks to someone in a helping way."

She said her first song to be copywrited was in 1949. It was called, "Can I take my Daddy home?"

Her song was published through Nordike Publishing Company.

"It was a song created for a little girl to sing about her father in prison. Whatever put him there, she knew he didn't do it. She wanted to see him and then take him home. She did not get to do either one," Mrs. Purifoy said.

Ruby Webb Purifoy was born Dec. 1, 1917, and got married at the Methodist Church in Gurdon in 1938. She had moved from El Dorado to Whelen Springs when she was nine-years-old. Ruby saw Arvil in church and told her family and friends, "That's my man."

Arvil had the same feeling and the feelings led to marriage.

"I had my wedding dress in the car and it broke down," she said.

Arvil recalled having three flat tires while going to get the marriage license. Ruby said her father did not know they were getting married, so they eloped and got married that night.

"I remember Brother Ford was the preacher," Arvil said.

The couple made a living, had children and Ruby continued to write songs. Arvil was in the sawmill industry for years, but spent the last 21 years before retirement at El Dorado Poultry.

Ruby raised the children, worked in an insurance office and also sold such things as Watkins products out of her home.

The Purifoy's had three children, two of whom are still living. The oldest is a daughter, Sylvia Ramona Simmons, 64, in Houston Texas; the second was William D. Purifoy, who died of cancer in 1999 at 56 years old; and Royce Lynn Purifoy of Eldorado, 59.

"When the kids were small, Arvil went off to work and I tended to the home front. When he got home, he tended to the things I could not do," Ruby recalled. "But the poems and songs kept coming. I was actually writing songs in my head before I could write them down. As a little girl, I would sing at church gatherings with my two sisters. We were called the Little Webb Girls'.

"I cannot remember a day when I was not conscious of the Lord, hell and heaven  and what it all met," she said.

"Then at 29, I got cancer and was pronounced dead. Well, the Lord brought me back and told me I was not finished with my purpose on earth."

Although Mrs. Purifoy is more or less confined to her bed after several strokes and fighting diabetes, she continues to write, with her husband standing by as her biggest fan.

"Arvil has been caring for me for 15 years, since I have become an invalid," she said. "I can't hardly sing anymore because of my illnesses, but I used to have a sweet voice. Arvil and I sang my songs in Decater, Ill. years ago. I wrote them and sang, while he played the melodies on the keyboard."

Mrs. Purifoy said she is concerned about our fighting men in Iraq, as the hometown heros are being forgotten in many instances, as she believes Royce, her son, felt while fighting in Vietnam as an American Air Force serviceman.

"I wrote a poem a day for my son," she said. "I wrote one for the men in general and they said it got wide distribution as an inspiration to those fighting in the war. I will share it now, hoping some hometown Gurdon boy can take heart that some people here do care and appreciate the sacrifice."

Be they about God, country or other subjects, such as romance and moonbeams, Mrs. Purifoy said that she still thinks of messages through poetry and song, and she feels like her writings need to finally be presented for all to see.

"I believe getting it out to the public is what I must do before my mission on earth is through," she said. "Everything I write is for somebody. Sooner or later, God shows me who."