Ruby ‘Irene’ Ecalbarger

September 9, 1948 – January 20, 2020

Ruby “Irene” Ecalbarger danced her way into heaven on Jan. 20, 2020. She loved to dance it; was her favorite thing to do.

Irene was born Sept. 9, 1948 in Alton, Missouri to Laman and Opal Sanders. She moved to the Wenatchee Valley with her parents and two sisters in June of 1963 where she lived until 1989. Irene graduated from Wenatchee High School in 1966 and after going to business school worked at the hospital in Wenatchee.

In 1985 Irene met the love of her life Buck Ecalbarger while out dancing and on Jan. 8, 1988, they married. They both gained two bonus sons from previous marriages. Buck and Irene moved to Renton in 1989 where they lived until Buck’s retirement from Boeing, moving to Moses Lake in 2004. Irene, with her husband Buck, spent time with her grandchildren, friends and family fishing, going to yard sales, refinishing furniture, traveling and of course dancing.

Irene battled numerous health issues from the time she was a teenager but never let them stop her; they rarely even slowed her down. Many of those battles she fought with her husband Buck by her side. In the end those battles took a toll on her body and she was no longer able to fight.

Irene is preceded in death by her parents Laman and Opal Sanders and her bonus son Daren Ecalbarger. She is survived by and will be greatly missed by her husband Buck Ecalbarger; her sisters Darlene Adams and Jo Keyser; her children Corey Ecalbarger, Stacey and Meleta Burts and Daniel and Sheila Burts; her grandchildren Gavin and Lacey Burts, Jordyn Ecalbarger, Adam Burts and Amanda Ecalbarger and her great-granddaughter Abygail Burts.

In lieu of cards and flowers the family requests donations be made in Irene’s name to either the Moses Lake Cancer Foundation or the American Cancer Society.