Ruth Gunderman Jones, 91, of Alna, passed away on the afternoon of Dec. 23, 2012 at the Cove’s Edge Nursing Facility in Damariscotta. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Oct. 18, 1921, she was the daughter of Benjamin and Bertha (Draus) Gunderman.
Born to a pharmacist family in New York, she attended public schools there and would go on to study secretarial science after high school. In 1948, she went to work for the S.B. Thomas Baking Company, and worked there until her retirement in 1986. She started as an executive secretary and eventually became the consumer affairs manager, all while caring for her aging mother and chronically ill brother.
Raised a city girl, Ruth relied on public transportation and never learned to drive until 1987, when she and her husband, Edward Jones, moved to the Jones family home in Alna. At this point she was in her mid-60s, but she learned to drive and took to it quite well.
She loved to garden, and had quite a green thumb. Together with her husband, she maintained a very productive garden each summer. The couple spent winters in Sarasota, Fla., where she and Edward lived next to her beloved sister, Fran and her husband, Cleve.
They were members of the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Sarasota, and the Water of Life Lutheran Church in Newcastle. Ruth and Ed were also avid supporters of the Newcastle-Alna Baptist Church.
Ruth loved to shop and was a savvy bargain hunter. She had a very dynamic personality and was a very popular conversationalist at Schooner Cove, Chase Point and Cove’s Edge.
Besides her parents, she was predeceased by her husband, Edward L. Jones in 2000.
She is survived by her step-daughters, Norma Jones of Succasunna, N.J., and Carolyn Jones of Olympia, Wash.; sister-in-law and former neighbor in Sarasota, Fran Bryant of Massachusetts; beloved grandchildren, Douglas Jones, Donald Jones, Debbie Wood, David Jones, all of Morris County, N.J., Jason and Tae Wright of Fairfax County, Va., Jeremy and Charlie Ann Wright, USCG, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., and Andrew and Melissa Morrison of Gig Harbor, Wash.; great-grandchildren, Jake, Jesse, Kirsten, Nathan, Alec, Justin and Madeleine; nieces and nephews, Jasmine Thornton, Otto W. Gunderman, Laura (Jones) Hayward and husband Frank, and David Jones and wife Patricia; as well as several grand-nieces and grand-nephews.
A graveside service will be held in the Alna Cemetery in the spring.
Condolences, and messages for the family, may be expressed by visiting www.StrongHancock.com.
Arrangements are under the direction and care of the Strong-Hancock Funeral Home, 612 Main St., Damariscotta.
