Parcourez la nécrologie de Ruth Drake 2025 résidant dans la province Ontario pour le détail des funérailles
Ruth Drake
Obituary
It is with sadness that we share that our matriarch, Ruth Elizabeth Drake (nee Pitts), passed away in her 101st year, on March 9th 2025, surrounded by family, music, stories, and the kindest of caregivers. Strongly independent, Ruth lived alone in the family home until New Year’s Eve, 2024. She wouldn’t have it any other way.
Ruth was a farm girl, born in Shakespeare, Ontario on August 29, 1924 to Mary Ellen and Harold Pitts. The youngest of seven, she grew up during the Depression and was imprinted with frugality, hard work, and a deep commitment to family. Ruth attended a one room school house, travelling from the farm in winter by horse and sleigh and later attended high school in Stratford. Following in her sister’s footsteps, Ruth studied nursing at Toronto General Hospital, where she met her true love, Charles Drake, a Resident in Neurosurgery.
Ruth and Charlie married in 1946 and soon began their family in London, Ontario. A proud mother for over 77 years, her four boys – John, James, Stephen, and Tom – became her life’s work. Ruth instilled in them diligence, the importance of studies, athleticism, a sense of fun, and fairness. As soon as school was out she piled the boys, their friends, and the family dog into her station wagon and spent idyllic summers at the cottage at Lion’s Head, on Georgian Bay.
As a mother, Ruth tirelessly facilitated music lessons, skiing at Devil’s Glen, trips with Grandma Woollatt, and procured front row seats for sports and school events.
Ruth travelled extensively with Charlie as his career took him around the globe, including a year in London, England and tours of India, Europe, South Africa, and Australia, to name a few. Ruth got her pilot’s licence, co-piloting Charlie when he flew the family to the cottage and beyond. She took endless golf lessons in order to share Charlie’s passion for golf, and rustled up dinners for 15 or so, on short notice when Charlie had out-of-town visitors.
As the boys grew, Ruth took on new pursuits. She raised Labrador puppies, was President of the London Maycourt Club, played the organ, worked at University Hospital as a ward clerk, and was a Charter member of the Trident Investment Club, serving twice as its President. A loyal Londoner, Ruth gave tirelessly to the London Heritage Council, taking a particular interest in protecting and refurbishing the Elsie Perrin Williams Estate.
Always an avid reader, with strong opinions and a taste for debate, Ruth was particularly proud of achieving an Honours BA in Politics from Western when she was 70.
Equally skilled with a paintbrush and a power washer, Ruth believed in doing it herself well into her 90’s. This included cleaning windows and eavestroughs, shoveling snow, and stacking wood, much to the alarm of neighbours. More than once, she re-shingled the cottage roof with sisters Grace and Kass.
Ruth embraced her four daughters-in-law and was keenly interested in their careers, achievements, and hobbies. She was an active and willing Grandma Ruthie to fourteen grandchildren, babysitting, attending concerts, graduations and weddings – and was always one of the last to leave the dance floor! Laterally, Ruth loved visits, photos and Facetimes from her twenty-eight great-grandchildren.
The family greatly appreciated the care and support of her PSW’s including Wal, Fatima, Noma, and Chantelle and her medical team: Dr. Jeff Spence and Dr. George Kim. A special thanks goes to Ruth’s friend and handyman Alex Milne.
Ruth was the last of her generation. She outlived her beloved Charlie, her Pitts siblings, her second husband, Sam Alloway, and her dear friend, Doug Bocking.
Mom, Grandma Ruthie, “GG” will be greatly missed by her four sons and daughters-in-law: John and Marybeth, Jim and Jane, Stephen and Martha, and Tom and Cindy, and her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
There will be a visitation for friends and family Friday, April 11th, between 4 and 6 pm with a funeral to follow at 11 am, Saturday, April 12th at Harris Funeral Home, 220 St James St., London, Ontario, N6A 1W9. A reception will follow at another venue.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the London Heritage Foundation, heritagelondonfoundation.ca/become-a-donor/ London Health Sciences Foundation, lhsf.ca/ways-give, or a charity of your choice.
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2025
Décès pour la Ville:London, Province: Ontario
avis deces Ruth Drake 2025
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