Ruby VanHousen- Victim of the Spanish Flu Pandemic

Ruby VanHousen and Frank Mead on their wedding day 1912

My Great-Grandparents were Ruby VanHousen and Frank Mead. Ruby was born Sept 29 1894 in Bridgewater Township, Susquehanna Co., Pa. Frank was born January 12 1892 in Brooklyn Township, Susquehanna Co., Pa. 

Frank and Ruby married on July 17, 1912, and had 3 children together, my grandfather, Leonard Melverne Mead being their oldest. Shortly after the birth of her third child in September of 1918, Ruby fell ill with the Spanish Flu. Tragically she did not survive, and their three children grew up without their mother. Ruby was only 24 years old.