'Helping every dang soul': Beloved camp director was among those lost in Texas flooding

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3021x1933+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F62%2F92%2Fd3a609d949aa8050edb839f0e6ef%2Fheartcrop.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/3021x1933+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F62%2F92%2Fd3a609d949aa8050edb839f0e6ef%2Fheartcrop.jpg" class="img" alt="Just after the summer session ended in late June, Heart O' the Hills camper Sydney Sutton sent this photo to the camp's director, Jane Ragsdale, who was killed in the July 4 flooding in Kerr County, Texas." fetchpriority="high"/> Simply after the summer time session resulted in late June, Coronary heart O' the Hills camper Sydney Sutton despatched this photograph to the camp's director, Jane Ragsdale, who was killed within the July 4 flooding in Kerr County, Texas. Erika Sutton disguise caption

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Erika Sutton Jane Ragsdale spent her summers by the Guadalupe, the very river that killed her every week in the past in the present day within the catastrophic July Fourth flood. Point out her identify in Kerrville, Texas, this week, and people are inclined to do two issues: tear up and smile.

"I imply I am unable to inform you how many individuals, acquaintances of mine say, 'My expensive, expensive good friend died.' After which they stated, 'Do you know Jane Ragsdale?' and I say, 'Yeah, I did,' " stated Karen Taylor, who lives in close by Hunt, Texas. For her, Ragsdale was West Kerr County personified.

"All people's pleasant right here, however she embodied that friendliness and generosity and love for others. I simply can't think about life with out her," Taylor stated.

Ragsdale, who was in her late 60s, did a variety of issues, however she's greatest often known as the proprietor and director of Coronary heart O' the Hills camp for ladies. She was born into the enterprise.

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/855x822+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F36%2F0f%2F60f6ac2543fb93a3a638272c8a78%2Fragsdale.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/855x822+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F36%2F0f%2F60f6ac2543fb93a3a638272c8a78%2Fragsdale.jpg" class="img" alt="Jane Ragsdale ran the Heart O’ the Hills camp for girls in Kerr County, Texas. The camp was between sessions when the deluge hit. The only person killed there was Ragsdale." loading="lazy"/> Jane Ragsdale ran the Coronary heart O' the Hills camp for ladies in Kerr County, Texas. The camp was between classes when the deluge hit. The one individual killed there was Ragsdale. Kerrville Every day Occasions disguise caption

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Kerrville Every day Occasions Her household purchased a boys' camp, Camp Stewart in 1966, the yr Ragsdale turned 9. They purchased Coronary heart O' the Hills a few decade later. Ragsdale helped run it from the beginning. By 1988, she was in cost.

Not like Camp Mystic, the ladies camp the place not less than 27 perished when the deluge hit, Coronary heart O' the Hills was between classes. The one individual killed there was Ragsdale.

"I've by no means in my life met somebody like Jane," stated Kathy Simmons, who was a very good good friend of Ragsdale's.

Simmons was at Coronary heart O' the Hills selecting up her granddaughter simply the week earlier than the flood, on the final night time the camp was open.

"We had a candlelight service on the river at 9 p.m., and it was so lovely. There have been prayers and there have been songs," Simmons stated. "Jane all the time led the kids in songs. And each a type of women and people counselors completely idolized her."

<img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4224x4768+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F30%2F2f%2F7353680e4805a3f69fbf630ca2e2%2Flettercrop.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/4224x4768+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F30%2F2f%2F7353680e4805a3f69fbf630ca2e2%2Flettercrop.jpg" class="img" alt="After Heart O' the Hills camper Sydney Sutton sent a photo of herself to Jane Ragsdale, the camp director wrote this letter back to Sydney." loading="lazy"/> After Coronary heart O' the Hills camper Sydney Sutton despatched a photograph of herself to Jane Ragsdale, the camp director wrote this letter again to Sydney. Erika Sutton disguise caption

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Erika Sutton The summer time camps on the Guadalupe River in Kerr County are establishments. Generations of women and boys undergo them, usually forming life-long attachments. Simmons thought of Ragsdale the guts and soul of her camp, each religious chief and educator.

"I imply, Jane taught these women the right way to change a tire, the right way to journey a horse, the right way to swim, the right way to shoot a gun, archery, cooking. I imply, the requirements of life," Simmons stated.

Within the low season, when she wasn't operating the camp, Ragsdale usually traveled to Guatemala, the place she volunteered as an interpreter and a venture organizer. It was mission work she began doing when she was 19 and learning journalism. She was a badass. However she was additionally in regards to the sweetest individual on the town.

"Jane was one of the real, type, sincere individuals and really clever, very heat," remembers Mindy Wendele, president and CEO of the Kerrville Space Chamber of Commerce. "She had a smile that you simply knew Jane Ragsdale was smiling at you."

Wendele grew up with Ragsdale, who she describes as an actual go-getter: deeply concerned within the Chamber of Commerce, a board member of the native liberal arts school, a category chief in highschool.

"Anytime that we have been out with Jane and her household at Coronary heart O' the Hills, we had only a fabulous time, simply fabulous recollections on the market," Wendele stated.

Now, with a number of the camps and virtually the entire riverfront in ruins, Kerr County faces a monumental clean-up and rebuilding effort.

Another excuse to overlook Jane Ragsdale.

"Oh, she could be on the market volunteering. She could be on the market clearing property," Simmons stated. "She would have her boots on, her gloves on, she could be serving to each dang soul that wanted to be helped."

So the flood took one among Kerr County's most succesful residents, however Ragsdale's affect on the neighborhood and the ladies who got here by means of Coronary heart O' the Hills camp goes to final a very long time.