Early Life
Ruby Laffoon was born on January 15, 1869 in a log cabin in Madisonville, Kentucky. He was the third child and only son of John Bledsoe Laffoon, Jr. and Martha Henrietta (née Earle) Laffoon. According to Laffoon biographer Vernon Gipson, his parents could not decide on a name for their new child, and for several years, referred to him only as "Bud". When he was a young child, Laffoon chose the name "Ruby" after John Edwin Ruby, a local businessman whose grocery store he frequently visited.
The Laffoons were primarily farmers but also had some experience in politics. Ruby Laffoon's grandfather, John Bledsoe Laffoon, Sr., migrated to Kentucky from South Carolina in 1815 and served one term in the Kentucky House of Representatives. Ruby's father, John, Jr., served several terms as a deputy sheriff in Hopkins County and one term as county assessor. Ruby's uncle, Polk Laffoon, served two terms in the United States House of Representatives.
Laffoon's early education was obtained in the public schools of Madisonville. While there, one of his teachers was his sister, Susan Isabella Laffoon, who was only 16 years old. At age 15, while plowing a field, Laffoon was kicked in the hip by a mule, requiring a six-week stay in a Nashville hospital. In the winter of the same year, he slipped on some ice and re-injured the hip. As a result of these injuries, his right leg was one-and-a-half inches shorter than his left leg, requiring him to wear special shoes and walk with a cane and a limp for the rest of his life. After his injury, Laffoon's parents decided that he could not make his living as a farmer and sent him to the private school of W. C. O'Bryan. By age 17, he was teaching in the common schools of Charleston in Hopkins County.
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