Ruth, Joe
Joe Ruth
Spruce Pine, Mitchell County, NC
Francis Josef "Joe" Ruth, beloved husband and father, passed away at home on Monday, April 16, 2001. He went from the loving arms of his wife and four children into the arms of his Savior.
The son of the late Bertrand Forrester Ruth and Jennie Young Ruth, he was born December 20, 1924, in Marion, McDowell County, NC. He was preceded in death by two brothers, B.F. Jr. and James.
After graduating from Marion High School in 1942, he enlisted in the United States Navy. He later joined the U.S. Army and served with the 19th Infantry Regiment during the Korean War, where his company won the Presidential Unit Citation. Ruth retired from the Army in 1967.
A true son of the South, Ruth was active in the Sons of Confederate Veterans and was a former deputy commander of the North Carolina Society. With T. H. Pearce of Franklinton, he founded the Confederate Heritage Society. In 1994, Ruth led the successful initiation to reunite the remains of Robert E. Lee's daughter, Annie, which had lain in Warren County since 1862, with those of her family in the Lee Chapel in Lexington, Virginia. Ruth was a member of the Jamestowne Society, the General Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Society of the Descendants of Mareen Duval, the Flagon and Trencher, the National Huguenot Society, the Society of the Descendant of Colonial Clergy and Saint Andrews Society.
Surviving are his wife, Alice; son Joe and his wife, Susan, of Brussels, Belgium and Washington, DC; daughter
Karen Ruth Liptack and her husband, Keith, of Spokane, Washington; sons, Wayne of Pisgah Forest, NC, Kris of Asheville; sisters Caton and Marie McDade both of Raleigh, NC; brother, Wayne of Jamestown; grandchildren, Darrell Tierney and Stuart, Erynn and Kemper Ruth; and two great grandchildren, Nick and Alex Ruth.
Services will be held at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Grindstaff Memorial Chapel of Webb Funeral Home. The Reverend Steve Williams will officiate. Burial will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday at Oak Grove Cemetery, Marion, NC.
The family will receive friends from 6 p.m. until the service hour Tuesday at the funeral home.
Condolences may be e-mailed to the family at [email protected].
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Lewis Rathbun Center, 121 Sherwood Road, Asheville, NC 28803 or Hospice of Mitchell County, PO Box 38, Spruce Pine, NC 28777.
Source: (unknown)
Date: (unknown)
Transcriber: John (James) Silver
Last updated 8/12/2003
Barney Kaufman