Scoby Ratliff

Scoby Ratliff was born to Kelly and Iva (Collinsworth) Ratliff in Menifee County, Kentucky in 1923.

The family moved to Jacksonburg, Ohio around 1935. Scoby, the first in his family to finish high school, graduated from Wayne Township High School in 1943 and then was drafted into the Army, where he served as a machine gunner’s assistant in Germany after the Battle of the Bulge as part of the 90th Infantry, Third Army, under General George Patton.

He was injured and briefly taken prisoner in Frankfurt, Germany.
After being returned to the U.S. forces, he was sent home on a hospital ship and then spent time convalescing in an Army hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan before returning home to Ohio and then making a trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee to claim the hand of his sweetheart, Osbal Ervin. They married in Rossville, Georgia on December 14, 1945.

Scoby and Ozzie made their home in Ohio. He worked for a time at Raymond Bag Co. in Dayton and then went back to farming in Jacksonburg and Franklin, Ohio. He was a tenant farmer for several years to Walter Bender, an attorney in Middletown.

In the mid-1950s, Scoby gave up farming to take on a fuel oil dealership for Marathon. He and Ozzie moved to 4418 Roosevelt Boulevard in Middletown, which was then on the outskirts of town, in 1957. After a few years with Marathon, Scoby become a dealer for Mobil Oil and founded Middletown Oil Company. He had billboards around town advertising “Scoby Ratliff--your warmest friend” and built up a thriving fuel oil business. Eventually he also bought several service stations, including the Mobil stations on Dixie Highway at Central; Action Corner, on Germantown Road at Wilbraham; and Midd- town, on Central at Sutphin.

Over the years Scoby was a member of the Gideon Road Church of Christ; the Bonita Drive Church of Christ; West Elkton Church of Christ; and the Middletown Church of Christ. He was one of the founding trustees of Midwestern Children’s Home in Pleasant Plain, Ohio, and a lifelong supporter of that good work. After moving to North Carolina in 2005, he was a member of the Central Church of Christ in Salisbury.

Scoby was predeceased by his parents, Iva Collinsworth Ratliff, Kelly Ratliff, and stepmother Bethel Ratliff; by his wife Osbal Ervin Ratliff; and by siblings Eunis Ratliff, Raymond Ratliff, Inez Ratliff, Carlton Ratliff, Imo Jane Ratliff, Gladys Fern Helton, Kelly Ratliff Jr., Kathleen Ratliff Rose, and Farrell Ratliff.

He is survived by a daughter, Mary Lou (Chris) Hutson of Abilene, Texas; brothers Earl (Dora) Ratliff of Miamisburg; Harold Ratliff of Germantown; and Cecil Ratliff; a sister Nola (Bob) Sorrell, also of Germantown; and many nieces, nephews and dear friends.

Following cremation in Texas, there will be a memorial service at Breitenbach McCoy Leffler at 10:00 am on September 4, 2010, with interment to follow at Butler County Memorial Park in Trenton.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Mid-Western Children’s Home, P.O. Box 48, Pleasant Plain, Ohio 45162. Condolences can be offered to the family online at www.pbfuneraldirectors.com.