Travis Ruth Pritchett

01

Hill County to Pampa

Travis Ruth Pritchett was Mabel Marzelle Pritchett’s sister and a daughter of Pink Pritchett and Mary Amby Marbut. The compiled family register identifies her as Ruth Walker in later life.

An obituary transcribed in that register says she married Joe Bailey Walker in Hillsboro in 1937, lived in Pampa from 1968 and worked for many years as a cashier at Gibson’s Discount Center. These details recover a working life beyond the one family anecdote most often attached to her name.

Sources: Descendants of John Marbut II, 2025 · God Forbid We Just Go to the Butcher

02

The Willie Nelson recollection

Aunt Ruth said she had babysat Willie Nelson when he was a boy. Gia confirmed to Clayton that Ruth was the aunt who told the story.

Hill County geography and the chronology make the recollection possible, but they do not independently prove it. The account remains Aunt Ruth’s remembered claim, kept in her voice rather than promoted into a celebrity fact.

Sources: Descendants of John Marbut II, 2025 · God Forbid We Just Go to the Butcher

03

Ruth in the family’s memory

Ruth died in 2006, according to the obituary preserved in the family register. The obituary and the anecdote offer different views: one records a long adult life and employment; the other preserves the kind of story relatives repeated and remembered.

Sources: Descendants of John Marbut II, 2025 · God Forbid We Just Go to the Butcher