Ruth C. (Schmitt) Walsh

Ruth C. Walsh Ruth was born on 15 July 1918, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the daughter of Charles Martin Schmitt, son of Alsatian immigrants, and Elizabeth Mabel (Peacock) Schmitt, daughter of second-generation Irish immigrants. Ruth was an only child and grew up in Ozone Park, New York, around the block from her future husband, James Patrick Walsh, son of Irish immigrants. Ruth was a lovely child, shy and pretty, and interested in music and dance. Her dream was to become a Rockette and dance with the troop at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, and she took dancing lessons as a child. In High School, she reconnected with the boy from the other block, Jimmy Walsh, who was three years ahead of her in school and a star on the football team of James Madison High School. They fell in love and Ruth kept every love letter Jimmy wrote to her all her life. They married after high school and Ruth worked on Maiden Lane near Wall Street as a file clerk for a large insurance company. Her father had established his own insurance brokerage and became successful. When World War II began, Ruth and James married before he went away for service in the United States Navy. Ruth enjoyed sewing and needlework and was accomplished at both. After the war, James joined the firm of Charles M. Schmitt and Company on John Street in New York City. They had two children, Carol Ann and Robert James, and moved to Springdale, Connecticut where they had their third child, Charles Michael. Ruth made many of her own clothes during this time and she always looked fashionable. All her life, Ruth had a love of gardening and collecting antiques. She spent many years with her friends driving around the countryside looking for antiques and plants. She became an expert at both. She also loved feeding wild birds and watching them outside the window and identifying their birdsongs. She loved cats and dogs, and had an albino parakeet who was part of the family, and four beloved dogs in her long life, Betty, a Pointer, Peggy an Irish Setter, Michelle a black toy poodle and then Buffy. a white toy poodle. Animals always made her happy. After many enjoyable years in Springdale with a fun-filled social life, Ruth and James and their children moved to a larger house in Turn-of-River, Connecticut. James eventually became ill and had to retire. To keep life more manageable, Ruth and James moved again to a large condominium in Heritage Circle in Southbury, Connecticut. It was easier for Ruth to take care of her husband where they were closer to St. Mary’s Hospital in Waterbury, Connecticut. While James was ill, Ruth maintained her calm by creating many needlework pictures based on antique American women’s needlework. Ruth also took her mother into her home in order to keep her out of a nursing home. After her husband and mother died, Ruth fell and cracked a rib and ended up in a nursing facility and then a nursing home, which she dreaded and never wanted to happen to her. She asked her son Robert to please help her get back into her own home or to move in with him in Vermont. Robert welcomed Ruth into his humble home where Ruth spent the last ten years of her life surrounded by her antiques and a little garden to sit in and watch the birds and flowers. She thrived there fighting off a mild case of Dementia and improved in health because of her living situation and the care of the medical teams at Dartmouth-Mary Hitchcock Hospital and Medical Center. Ruth died peaceably while sitting on her favorite sofa after a happy morning, with no pain and in the company of people who loved her. She told her son the day before that God probably wanted her. Her life was 100 years of love. Calling hours will be held Thursday January 17, 2019 from 9:30 - 10:30 am at Munson Lovetere Funeral Home, 235 Main St. N., Southbury, Connecticut. A Funeral Mass will be at 11:00 am at Sacred Heart Church, 910 Main St. S., Southbury, Connecticut. Burial will be immediately following at New North Cemetery, 48 Washington Ave., Woodbury, Connecticut. 

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Ruth C. (Schmitt) Walsh, please visit our floral store.