(Dave Manning tribute, continued)
RUTH
Ruth Manning was by her husband's side during each term of the legislature, as she was in the gypsy construction days of their youth.
Mrs. Manning said, "We really didn't have a home in the early days. Dave often said he thought I'd cleaned up every house in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. We'd be one place for two or three months when the youngsters were little and then move on to the next job.
"Dave had sold his car so we could get married and when I went to Wyoming to meet him, he was a worker then . . . he walked to the site and borrowed a car and then came to the station and got me. They were such fun days.
"But even in later years, I always took the children and went with Dave. We just lived here and there and met so many people.
"Then when Dave was elected to the legislature I just went along again."
Both Dave and Ruth said they remembered when things were so much more formal than they are now. She said she remembered for year and years the Governor's wife gave a tea every Thursday afternoon, from 3 to 5. And she didn't miss a week.
"It was wonderful for everyone to get acquainted and to visit. And we all got to know eah other that way," she said.
"And everyone dresses more informally. Dave said in the early days you didn't go on the floor without a shirt or tie," and both agreed the women were always in dresses.
Dave Manning has served under 12 governors. He said he thought Governor Roy Ayers was probably the best well-rounded governor. Governor Ayers served from 1936 to 1940.
"He used to be in a lot of trouble," said Dave, "but he had been a sheepman and in agriculture, he was an attorney, then a District Judge and then had been elected to Congress. He had a legal background and was well-rounded in all parts of Montana life. And he had his roots here. And that's important. But he was a fair man and he had had legislative experience.
"One of his favorite sayings was 'Used to be sheepherders were crazy, now it's the sheep owners.'"
In 1967 the one man-one vote districting was changed. And it took a vote of the U.S. Supreme Court to do it.
Dave Manning now represents Garfield, McCone, Petroleum, Rosebud, Treasure and the Grassrange-Roy area of Fefgus.
It is a long and distinguished career of Senator Dave Manning and his wife, Ruth, and it will continue to be a career of serving.
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