Ruth Ann Tynes Corkern, Feb. 6, 1917 – Jan. 8, 2015, was born in her parents’ home in State Line. Throughout her long and productive life she had a wide range of experiences and careers.

She grew up helping on the family farm, picking cotton and doing other chores along with her siblings and many cousins. She played basketball at Pine High School and at Southeastern Louisiana University. She briefly taught in public school before joining the First State Bank in Bogalusa. After World War II she moved with her husband to their farm in Pine. During the 1950s and 1960s she worked at the Bogalusa Community Medical Center and at the Green and Reedy Farm Supply Company in Franklinton. In 1960 she founded the Franklinton Kindergarten, which she owned and operated until kindergarten became a part of the public school system. During the 1970s she managed several apartment complexes in Baton Rouge, and during the 1980s she helped manage the Long Beach Mini Warehouse in Long Beach, Miss., owned by her sister, Evelyn Magee. She retired in 2005 at the age of 88.

In 2007 she moved to Lafayette. A lifelong gardener, she planted and tended a beautiful flower garden outside her apartment window in Lafayette.

She was a dedicated Christian, serving her church for her whole life. She began playing the piano in church as a young child and retired as a Sunday school teacher more than 80 years later. She continued to read the Bible daily for as long as she could — well past her 95th birthday.

She never lost her spirit of generosity and compassion or her sense of humor.

She is survived by her three children, Wilton C. Corkern Jr. and Mary Bruce Corkern, David E. Corkern and Jess Corkern and Ruth Anne Devillier and Reggie Devillier; her sisters, Mildred Ellen Wiedenhoeft and Evelyn Magee; four grandchildren and spouses, Jessica Woodworth and Oran, Molly Corkern and fiance’ Richard Wagner, Sarah Pursel and Kyle and Jana Gosney and Caleb; five great-grandchildren, Bethany Woodworth, Abigail Woodworth, Gabriel Woodworth, Mattias Gosney and Jaren Gosney; and an expected great-grandson.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Wilton C. Corkern Sr.; her parents, James Nevis Tynes and Ethel Juliann Crain Tynes; her sister, Lattice Sturtz; and her brother, the Rev. Lochte Tynes.

Visitation will be at Crain Funeral Home after 10 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 12, 2015, with a funeral service to be held at 2 p.m. in the chapel, with the Rev. Bernard Magee officiating. Burial will follow in the Ellis Cemetery.

Obituaries can be viewed online at www.crainfh.com.