Ruby Jean (Lacey) Mandin

Ruby Jean Mandin was born in Lethbridge to Arthur George Lacey and Ruby Alice Pilling. She was the firstborn of five children, including Barbara (Larry) Crofts, Lorna Mary Lacey, John (Linda) Lacey, and Fred (Peggy) Lacey. She was predeceased by her parents, as well as Lorna Mary and Fred.

She married her sweetheart, Ian Mandin, in Red Deer in 1961. He was working at the local CKRD radio station as the morning host when they met at the Dairy Queen where she worked, which still stands on Gaetz Avenue.

Together they had six children: Susannah (Tom) O’Brien, Matthew O’Brien (step-grandson) – Calgary, Alberta; Tyler (Denise) Mandin, Talesa, Torin – Spruce Grove, Alberta; Thane (Andrea) Mandin, Daylan, Lane, Georgia, Layton – Mandurah, Australia; Thad (Tess) Mandin, Cosette, Hannah – Calgary, Alberta; Rhett (Bonnie Jean) Mandin, Andrew, Christopher, Nicholas, Joshua, Jeannie – Lethbridge, Alberta; and Marla (Bill) Kehler – Lethbridge, Alberta.

There are also 19 great-grandchildren because of Ian and Ruby Jean’s marriage!

Ruby Jean excelled in certain areas as a teenager, including piano and organ playing, and she was also a proficient seamstress in her high school classes in Red Deer. She attended one year of post-secondary schooling in Lethbridge before she married Ian.

She quickly became a busy young mother after marriage while moving from Red Deer to Lethbridge, then to Provo, Utah, USA, for schooling, to Spruce Grove, Alberta, and eventually back to Lethbridge, where she spent the majority of her life raising her family, teaching piano lessons, and making dear friends in the community and in her church.

Ruby Jean was a faithful member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints her entire life. Despite any hardships or challenges she endured, she was always an example of stalwart faith to her children and all who knew her.

Her hobbies included square and round dancing, which she enjoyed locally in southern Alberta and while travelling into Montana to dance with her husband. She was very proud of the fact that she had travelled to Western Australia nearly a dozen times, where her son Thane’s family lived. She always enjoyed breaking up the winter with a warm trip down under.

After Ian’s death in 1996, she later married Bob Heseltine for a few years before his passing.

Ruby Jean loved her family most of all. She was always interested in their lives and was happy to worry for anyone who needed her concern, while also being incredibly generous in offering her help. You could count on Mom to show up to every single Kiwanis Music Festival performance, where some seasons she had as many as 20 classes to attend with six busy kids in music. She always encouraged her children to know and love music and to do what is right.

She will be missed here on earth, and we are grateful to have called her Mom, Sister, Grandma, and friend.

A funeral service will take place on Tuesday, August 11, at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Copperwood Chapel (9 Keystone Terrace West, Lethbridge) at 1:00PM. Friends may meet the family starting at 12:00PM. Reception and graveside (MountainView Cemetery) to follow. Live stream will be available and a link will appear below this obituary 15 minutes before service time.