Avis de décès de Ruth Lee - Nécrologie - MesAieux.com

Ruth Alida Ward LeeChapel Hill - Ruth Alida Ward Lee died peacefully at age 94 on November 16, 2011 at Carolina Meadows Health Center in Chatham County, NC. She was born on January 7, 1917 in the Panama Canal Zone to Inez Weaver Ward and George B. Ward of Weaverville, NC. After her childhood years in Weaverville, the family lived in Weaverville and Washington D.C. where Ruth earned her B.A. majoring in economics at American University. She was president of her sorority, Delta Gamma, and appeared in Life Magazine as one of the "Bachrach Beauties", April 18, 1938.She met her husband, the late Sherman Emery Lee, while they were students at American University and they were married at St. Alban's Church in DC. The couple moved to Cleveland, Ohio to pursue Sherman's Ph.D. and there, Ruth's support as a librarian in the Cleveland Public Libraries was the beginning of a 70 year marriage and collaboration centering on Sherman's work as an Asian art scholar and a world renowned art museum director. As an active partner, memorable hostess and loving mother, Ruth provided the humor, flexibility and sociability that were fundamental to their success. After raising their four children as they moved to successive art museum posts in Cleveland, Detroit, Tokyo, Seattle and again, Cleveland, Ruth and Sherman retired to her beloved native North Carolina in 1982. In Chapel Hill, Ruth avidly volunteered for Meals on Wheels, served on the altar guild at the Church of the Holy Family and was a member of the Piedmont Rock Garden Society. Ruth and Sherman were donors to and supporters of the Ackland Art Museum of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Devoted to her family, Ruth spent many happy times with her children and grandchildren, especially loving to cook for them. She had a wonderful vegetable garden and beautiful Japanese garden at their home on Dixie Drive.Ruth is survived by her four children: Katharine Lee Reid and her husband, Bryan S. Reid of Chapel Hill, Margaret (Peg) Gray Bachenheimer and her husband, Steven Bachenheimer of Carrboro, Elizabeth Chiego and her husband, William J. Chiego of San Antonio, Texas, Thomas Weaver Lee and his wife, Christie Llewellyn Lee of Raleigh, and by her 6 grandchildren: Aaron Thomas Gray, Celia Anne Gray, Ruth Chiego, Rose Chiego Jennings, Annah Robertson Lee and Sherman Thomas Lee, one great grandchild, Taeden William Chiego, by 6 step grandchildren and 3 step great grandchildren.A memorial service will be held at the Church of the Holy Family, 200 Hayes Road, Chapel Hill, at 2pm on Wednesday, November 30, 2011.In lieu of flowers, please make donations to endow the Ruth and Sherman Lee Curatorship of Asian Art, The Ackland Art Museum, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599.