Alice Judith Newton Ruth went to be with her Lord and Savior and her beloved husband Joe on September 30, 2022. She was living at Silver Bluff Village in Canton, NC and died from Alzheimer’s Disease. She was ninety-six years old. The daughter of Norwegian immigrants John and Agnes Newton, she was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School.
In 1944 she married Navy (later Army) aviator CWO3 F. Josef (Joe) Ruth and embarked on a life of adventure. She lovingly raised four children in North Carolina, Virginia, Japan, and Germany. Along with her husband Joe, she became fluent in German and developed many local friendships in Germany and Austria, where they initially retired.
After many happy years in Austria, they moved to Bobbitt, NC in 1976 to be closer to children and grandchildren. They later relocated to Spruce Pine, NC, near where her husband’s family had settled centuries before. Along with her husband, Alice was active in the Scandinavian Society, the Sons of Norway, the Jamestown Society, the Sons of Confederate Veterans, the Military Order of the Stars and Bars (MOSB), the Saint Andrew’s Society, and the Society of Mareen Duval Descendants. Alice received the MOSB’s highest award for women, the Varina Howell Davis Award. She was the first non-member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy to receive this recognition, in part for the successful initiative of her and her husband to have the remains of General Robert E. Lee’s daughter Anne moved from Warrenton, NC to the Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University.Alice loved baking, family history, crossword puzzles, and card games. She could whip anyone at Scrabble. When younger, she was active in square dancing, bowling, and bingo. She loved to sing and was a member of the senior singing group The Golden Age Singers that sang in local nursing homes and churches. She also volunteered at the Spruce Pine hospital for many years. Alice’s husband of fifty-seven years died in 2001.
She is survived by their four children (e(Susan), Karen (Keith Liptack), Wayne, and Kris), four grandchildren (Darrell, Philip, Erynn, and Kemper), and five great-grandchildren (Alex, Nick, Olive, Ivy, and Finley). She loved her Norwegian cousins and treasured getting together with them.
A funeral service will be held on Friday, October 7, 2022, at 1:00 p.m. at Westmoreland Funeral Home & Crematory in Marion, NC with Dr. Scott Hagaman officiating. Following the funeral service Alice will be laid to rest in Oak Grove Cemetery, Marion, NC beside her loving husband, Joe and several generations of his family
