Obituary

Ruth schwartz, three months shy of her 100th birthday, died peacefully in her sleep on october 14, 2016 at eastbrook center.
She was born in brooklyn, ny in january 1917 to the late max and esther kestenbaum . Ruth was the oldest of three children. Her brother harold was 22 months younger than her; her sister florence 10 years younger. Ruth had a close and loving relationship with her siblings and grieved when both preceded her in death.
In august 1929, ruth’s father died. Two months later, the country was plunged into the great depression. Esther, a romanian immigrant and a talented seamstress, kept the family together by taking in sewing. Ruth babysat and harold worked at a produce market after school to contribute income. They were very poor. This had a great impact on ruth. For the rest of her life, she helped people in need, honoring those who’d helped her family during their hardest times.
Ruth, an excellent student who would have been a great college candidate, studied secretarial skills in high school, so she could get a good paying job. She graduated at 17 and was immediately hired by a lawyer. She would be a crackerjack legal secretary for the rest of her life, taking time off to raise her children. She was an avid reader, an excellent speller and a strict grammarian. On her lunch hour, she wrote letters to far-flung family and friends. She kept in touch because she truly and deeply cared about others.
In january 1939, ruth married her soul mate, emil schwartz. She was a petite 5’1″ young woman, he a 6′ tall broad-shouldered young man. An unlikely pairing, they were happily married for 36 years until his untimely death. Emil never failed to bring her lilacs on mother’s day and carnations on her birthday, her two favorite flowers. Once the children were grown, they spent vacations travelling the u.S. And canada. Emil was expert at getting lost, which always led to great adventures and wonderful stories.
In 1941, their son martin was born. They wished for another child, but world war ii intervened and emil was drafted. It was 1950 when the long-wished for second child was born, lynne, a daughter. Now the family was complete, and they were a very close and loving unit until 1971, when sudden illness took martin’s life. He was 29. Emil followed 4 years later at the age of 59.
Ruth, heartbroken, but always resilient, started taking sculpture classes and doing volunteer work. In 1978, ruth followed lynne and her husband jerry to west virginia and settled into an apartment on the east end of charleston. She’d never lived outside of new york city before. She was 61 years old and she fell in love with charleston.
Ruth never learned to drive and in our small city, she could walk to everything she needed. She was always a great walker and believer in fresh air and exercise. She volunteered her secretarial skills for the wv artists and craftsmens guild, the kidney foundation and other nonprofits. She took a rug hooking class and met the woman who would become her best friend, mary jane mcgowen. They had weekly scrabble dates for many, many years, often at tudor’s biscuit world. Scrabble, beans and cornbread were a natural combination for them.
Ruth also joined a writing group at the ywca and started writing beautiful poetry and funny essays. Some of her essays were published in the charleston gazette’s write your own column. When ruth became a grandmother to eamon and rafael, she started writing children’s stories, making them characters in the stories. She wrote stories for every child she knew and mailed them copies. Eamon and rafael called her gaba and gaba’s stories travelled the world via the u.S. Mail.
She was an amazing grandmother. She took her grandsons everywhere–to the fire station, the playground, the library, the movies, the shops and outside to play with water guns in the summer. She was so proud of them and loved them passionately.
Ruth loved so many people and they loved her right back. She was a loving daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, aunt, cousin and friend who never forgot to send a birthday card, or to bring a small gift to a child that meant so much. She was a great soul with a heart so much bigger than her tiny 5’1″ frame.
She is survived by and will be greatly missed by her daughter lynne schwartz-barker, her son-in-law jerry barker (who she called her son), her two grandsons eamon barker and rafael barker, her nieces marlene, marcia and ellen and her nephew michael for whom she was a second mother, her many, many friends and family members.
The family would like to thank the kind and loving staff at eastbrook center, where ruth lived for the last 21 months of her life, and the hospice care staff who made her last two months so comfortable.
Ruth will be cremated and, at her request, there will be no funeral. Family will gather to celebrate her life. She chose the good people at barlow-bonsall funeral home to carry out her end-of-life wishes. On-line condolences may be left at barlowbonsall.Com.
If you would care to make a donation in her memory, please send it to the kanawha county public library, 123 capitol street, charleston, wv 25301. The staff knew her well, since she walked to the library twice a week for over 30 years, until macular degeneration stole her ability to read.

Barlow bonsall funeral home has been entrusted to handle the arrangements.