Ruth Paul
Obituary
Ruth M. Paul
Ruth walked her life with a loving family and a community of friends and neighbors. She cherished her personal connections and delighted in recounting anecdotes and news of the day to all around her. She extended goodwill and received much love and many kindnesses in return. Throughout her life those she encountered felt her warmth and fun and generous spirit, and her appreciation for their presence. She loved hearing when someone in the community told the family, ‘She is my favorite.’
Ruth was born in the small town of Roper, NC where her father and mother Joseph and Janice Nowarah farmed and owned the general store. She was proud that she was a descendant of pre-revolutionary war settlers on her mother’s side and religious, artistic, and education leaders from Nazareth on her father’s side. It delighted her to tell of George Washington surveying her county and of the Boone building marker found in her home. Black Beard’s rumored treasure in the farm’s creek and Indian and plantation artifacts in the backfields prompted discovery outings with her brothers and lasting research endeavors. Ruth held family and friends in North Carolina dearly in her heart. She never failed to find someone in the Roanoke Beacon who she knew personally or by family. Wanting the best for Roper’s future, when encouraged to sell her farm property for development she obliged, with provision for protection of historic sites.
After receiving a degree in science/home economics from ECTC, now East Carolina Univ, Ruth worked in the Navy Yard’s metallurgy lab in Virginia. She met James R. Paul before his army deployment to the Philippines in WWII, and arrived in Seattle as a newlywed following their marriage and cross-continental road trip. Her southern graciousness and sensibilities moved west and the Magnolia Community became her small town. Ruth quickly made new friends working for the Dean of UW as she helped her husband finish architectural school. She met neighbors through community connections – as captain for the March of Dimes, a volunteer for her friends’ political campaigns, officer for the Association of Republican Women, and through Arboretum, garden and Overlake Golf Club memberships. She wasn’t much of a driver, but she could sink a put. Briarcliff and Catharine Blaine PTAs benefited from her efforts and she was a Bluebird and Campfire leader extraordinaire.
Although her Grandma Lewis and her Mama may have been better bakers and cooks as she said, Ruth combined southern cooking with Northwest ingredients to her family’s delight well before cooking trends. She was most famous for her pecan pie with nuts from her sister’s tree, her Christmas crab salad, and her marmalade brandy bread pudding. She didn’t ‘mess with’ the NC pork barbecue that she loved so much. It arrived via carry-on-bags or shipping.
Ruth loved baseball from the time her brother Joe played. If the Seattle Mariners were playing, she was watching and willing players to make their plays. She loved basketball as well, and was famous on the block for her underhand free-throw shots into the driveway hoop. Most of all, she loved that her grand-girls played sports, changing her PI subscription to the Times to read about their softball, basketball and volleyball games. Ruth supported all teams with family connections: ‘Go-Grizzlies, Go Roughriders, Go-Huskies, Go-Cougs, Go Vandals, Go-Any Team NC.’ A moral choice was to be made if teams played one another.
Ruth delighted in her garden that she filled with plants of beauty and rareness creating a bird sanctuary. She loved finding or being given a special ‘start’ to plant, to tend her rare ferns and to compare her trees and rhododendrons to Arboretum specimens. Reading was a joy and the library an appreciated resource for the books she sought. Mysteries, especially those written by her friend Judy, brought many hours of enjoyment. She was a curious learner and encouraged academic pursuits for her children and grandchildren. Most of all, Ruth loved her husband and family and found pride and joy in their every accomplishment, big or small. And she adored her cat Simba.
Ruth passed away Dec. 20 at home in Seattle. She was 88 and proud of it. Her husband Jim of nearly 64 years succumbed nine days later and they are now rejoined in eternity. She is survived and so very missed by her daughters Kathy and Wendy Ty Tice; son Jim Paul, Linda and their girls Kelsey and Jamie; her sisters Betty Griffin and Joyce Johnson of Williamston, NC; her brother Mitchell Nowarah of Roper, NC; her deceased brother Joe Nowarah’s family; and many cousins, nieces, nephews and friends.
She was my great aunt, even though I never actually met her I was told stories of her and saw pictures. My Grandaddy, Mitchell W. Nowarah Sr, who has also now passed as of Nov 2010 talked about her alot. He told me he would send her the local newspaper from down here. I remember she sent me a letter when I graduated from high school, I guess Grand-daddy told her ;- I guess they are together again now too.