Details

Collection Summary
Collection: FND001 - SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Series: Tribute
Folder: DIG
Item: 271693
Title: Ruth "Naomi" Stevens
Date: 5/23/1957-5/12/2025
Creator:
Inscription/Marks: 5/23/1957
Summary: Ruth “Naomi” Stevens, 67, of Williston, ND, passed peacefully into her Lord and Savior’s arms on May 12, 2025, at Bethel Lutheran Nursing and Rehabilitation Home, Williston. A memorial service was held May 21, 2025, at the Fulkerson Stevenson Funeral Home Chapel in Williston, ND, with Pastor Ron Erickson officiating. Inurnment was at Hillside Memory Gardens Cemetery in Williston, ND. Naomi was born on May 23, 1957, in Culbertson, MT, to Lorring and Ardis Stevens. Naomi was left with intellectual and developmental disabilities after an illness at the age of 3. Her family moved around quite a bit when she was a young child. She lived and was educated in Medicine Lake, MT, Havre, MT, and Kalispell, MT. Because of her disabilities, the family moved to Williston so Naomi could attend UMARC. When she was in her early 20’s, she moved to Plentywood, MT, and lived at Glen-Wood and worked at their recycling center. She later moved back to Williston and lived at Opportunity Foundation. She worked at Wise Penny, but she had a bit of a temper, and she was scaring the customers. They moved her to the recycling center, which didn’t work out so well either. They then gave her the job of wiping off the dining room tables after meals. She would only wash one very small spot, but that one spot was extremely clean! She would give hugs to the others that worked there, and she’d tell them she loved them and that they were beautiful. While living there, she had an incident that left her more disabled, and she then moved into Bethel where she lived until her passing. Naomi loved listening to music, especially Kenny Rogers. Christmas was her favorite time of year and Silent Night was her most cherished hymn. She adored her Barbies, stuffed animals, and her dolls (all named Tammy). She enjoyed picking dandelions and Mom received many dandelion bouquets over the years. She also enjoyed harvest season when we picked sunflowers and decorated the grain trucks and pickups. But more than her love of flowers was her love of rocks. She had buckets beyond buckets of rocks – in the closets, under the bed and in the quonset. She participated in the Special Olympics a few times, but she was more interested in what everyone else was doing or in finding a rock. Naomi had a few nicknames growing up – Speed (because there was nothing speedy about her), Naomi Nadine & Nomes. If you mispronounced her name or made her mad in any way, she would damn you to hell and no one could damn you to hell like Naomi could. It was something you would never forget. If she got your name wrong the first time; it was always going to be wrong. Her brother-in-law, Brett, has always been “Brent,” her nephew, Caleb, was “Haleb” and her niece, Lexie, will always be “Stupid Dumb Baby Lexie.” She liked to give people nicknames, some were funny and others, not so complementary. Naomi had a love for animals and they loved her, except the feral cats. She tried so hard to love them and they weren’t having any of that. She’d capture one and try to drag it home, she’d be shredded but she wouldn’t let go. She thought red cardinals were so beautiful. She would look at pictures of them for hours and she had shirts and jackets with cardinals on them. Naomi had a heart of gold. She could not stand to see anyone sad or hurting. We know Naomi is in heaven with her Lord and Savior, and she has been reunited with Mom and Dad and all of those who have gone on before her. Her beloved pets were there to greet her, along with the feral cats that God has tamed down for her. We will meet again someday and have a glorious reunion. Naomi is survived by her brother, Dusty (Tricia) Stevens, of Gilbert, SC; sister, Lorri (Brett) Hinricksen, of Williston, ND; nephews, Caleb (Micki) Hinricksen, of Williston, Tyler (Liz) Hinricksen, of Williston, nieces, Lexie (Tyrel Halverson) Hinricksen, of Williston, ND, Michele Stevens, of San Antonio, TX; great-nieces, Easton Hinricksen, Freya Hinricksen; great-nephews, Cayden Halverson, Bennett Halverson, William Hinricksen, Rowdy Hinricksen; aunt, Vickie (Hank) Penner, aunt, Elotie Stevens; and numerous cousins. She was preceded in death by her parents, Lorring and Ardis Stevens; paternal grandparents, Dennis (Denny) and Ann Stevens; maternal grandparents, Victor and Millie Fishell and Vern Stevens.
Red ID: FND_I_79189 Image ID: 529562 Image Notes: FND001 271693

Collection: FND001 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Date: -

Summary: The North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program is sponsored by the North Dakota Funeral Directors Association. The life stories of deceased North Dakotans are featured in an archvied collection. Current partners in the project are Eastgate Funeral & Cremation Services, Bismarck Evans Funeral Homes, Carrington and New Rockford Everson-Coughlin Funeral Home, Williston Fulkerson Funeral Home, Tioga Fulkerson Funeral Home, Watford City Fulkerson Stevenson Funeral Home, Williston Nero Funeral Home, Bottineau Parkway Funeral Service, Bismarck Springan Stevenson Funeral Home, Stanley Stevenson Funeral Home, Dickinson These funeral homes provide recent obituaries to the Foundation, where staff and volunteers format, edit and archive each memorial. The memorials are posted, and copies are sent to the family for their input and approval. The listing currently features more than 13,000 memorials, and is constantly updated as new memorials and histories are received.

Enter a subject or term in one or both of the “Search” boxes.

  • “Item Detail” searches the Title, Creator and Summary fields of all item-level records.
  • “Collection Number” searches the Collection Number field only and requires an exact match.

The “DETAILS” button provides additional information about an item, as well as the following options:

  • “Collection Summary” details the contents of the entire collection in which the selected item is located.
  • You can print the image and its corresponding details by selecting “Print".
  • “Digitized Images from the Collection” returns a list of all digitized items within that collection (available from the “Collection Summary” screen).

Click on image to expand/zoom the image view.

“Photobook home” takes you back to the main Photobook page where you can start a new search.

“Featured Collections” showcases new and/or popular collections and the digitized images within those collections.

Information on how to order copies is located here.

The collections preserved in the North Dakota State Archives include over a million images. Only a small percentage of these images have been digitized. This photo gallery provides a preview of the images that have been digitized.

For more information on the non-digitized images, please refer to the finding aids found on our website at history.nd.gov, or ask a member of our reference staff for assistance.