MONROE - Ruby Radke has spent many days working round the clock running her own business, but now she spends most of her time enjoying life with the people she loves. Part of that enjoyment is community involvement with groups close to her heart that she's been a part of for several decades, and spending time with family and friends.

Radke was born at home in Eau Claire County and has lived in Wisconsin her entire life. Her parents were farmers during the Depression and lost everything. Although they were a poor household, Radke never recalls feeling that way.

"We were very much loved," she said, noting that the family received hand-me-downs and her mother made her dresses from old flour sacks, but no one seemed to mind.

She was raised mostly on a small farm in Osseo and walked a mile each day to attend a one-room country school. She remembers picking vegetables from the garden to take to a factory to sell for a nickel per pound. Her mother spent lots of time canning and the children were expected to help. Radke recalls the threshing crews coming through during the summer and her mother preparing all day for meals to feed several men.

For fun, she remembers attending outdoor movies in Strum while the adults shopped around town. Sunday afternoons in the wintertime her father would hitch up the horses and sleigh, and the children and neighborhood children would sled or ski on the back.

"If the moon was shining on the snow, you knew it was the night to go sledding," she recalled.

Radke had a brother just 17 months older. In high school, the two would invite friends over while her mother played piano and taught the students how to dance.

At Osseo High School, the hot lunch program had just begun. Radke helped her mother cook meals at home and take them to the school for the students.

Radke graduated in 1955, and she knew there was no money to continue her education. "I knew I had to go forward and make my own way," she said.

Radke landed a job as a receptionist at Hauser Portrait Studio in Janesville. She filled many other duties, from helping with photos, keeping books and anything else needed. She enjoyed the work and met her husband, Wally, who was a photographer there.

She worked there for almost a year-and-a-half, but soon Wally purchased ZumBrunnen Studio in Monroe, and they opened The Radke Studio on the south side of the Square. The couple married shortly after in 1956 and, together, worked round the clock.

Radke did all of the portrait art work and took care of corrections, blemishes and anything else to make the portraits their best. She used a retouch machine, best explained as a needle that vibrates and works directly on the black-and-white negative.

Radke experienced first-hand the transition from black and white to color photos and said it was mostly a big headache. It took Kodak a while to perfect natural color to permanency, and Radke recalls always doing their best to satisfy the customer.

"Photography has changed so drastically," she said. "I would not want to be involved now."

She would spend more than four decades working side-by-side with her late husband in the photography business.

"I loved working with him," she said.

She also loved working with customers, helping them preserve their portraits and make their homes beautiful with art. She recalls working on several Courthouse photographs that many people wanted on their walls.

"You have to have a great attitude," she said of owning and operating her own business for so many years.

Radke opened Wing N Pond Gallery in 1981; they had created a path behind the ally to the studio from so many trips back and forth. By 1988, the business was so strong that they decided to close the studio to focus on the gallery. However, people still called upon them regularly for their photography skills.

"We thought we were done," she said. "But the public wouldn't let (us) stop."

The job took some getting used to.

"It took me a while to like it," she said. "I missed the studio but the gallery really became fulfilling. I love wildlife."

When Wally died in 2004, Radke continued to run Wing N Pond, but six years ago she sold it to her son, Chuck, who now runs it as Frame N Color.

Community involvement has always been important to Radke. She has been a member of St. John's Church since 1956. She taught Sunday School for several years and headed up the alter guild for 10 years. She is also a VFW Auxiliary member and has been for 53 years; she has brothers who were in the military and said the program is dear to her heart. She is also a longtime member of the Monroe Moose Lodge and the New World Swiss Club from Turner Hall.

"I'm very proud to be an American," she said. "I wouldn't want to live anywhere but Wisconsin - it's the best place in the world."

She has been a part of the Monroe Woman's Club since 1977 and served as the art chair for several years. She was a large part of the art competition with the schools and was always proud to display the winners with beautiful mattes and frames in the Wing N Pond window.

She also served as a Girl Scout leader, and all three of her daughters were Scouts.

In 1972, Radke's husband helped start the Monroe Optimist Club. As a charter member, the group decided to bring in the cheese curd fundraiser, and they tested them in the Radke kitchen, a great tribute to the group's history and a night she will always remember. "There was lots of testing and re-testing," she said with a laugh. "They've done a fabulous job with that cheese curd program."

Running a business with five children of her own wasn't always easy, but it was always important for Radke to stay involved.

"I guess I thought it needed to be done," she said of why she joined so many organizations. "A lot of times it was just needed for my kids."

She is a charter member of the Courthaus Quilters and said her love for quilting began at home and from taking home economics class in high school. Quilting has been one of Radke's main hobbies, and she enjoys reading quilting books as well. She loves making special items for family members and sharing her gift whenever she can.

Today, she and Ken Anderson have been together for 11 years, and the two enjoy spending time listening to music and dancing at Turner Hall, where they met. She hopes that more people at home would take advantage of the music and dancing Turner Hall offers.

"It's phenomenal," she said of the music at Turner Hall on Sunday afternoons. "It's a great way to socialize. Life is meant to be shared."

Radke lives by the words that were often spoken from her mother: "Bread cast upon the water will always return."

Radke's five children are all married and within driving distance, for which she is grateful. She has 10 grandchildren.

"I have been blessed in so many ways throughout my life - it's unreal," she said.