Ruth Ketteringham dies at age 99
I was very sad to read today that Ruth Ketteringham had died on Wednesday. I met Ruth a decade ago, when we sat together at a presentation on the history of maps at the Western Reserve Historical Society Library and hit it off. I confessed to being confused by the various place-names involving "Brooklyn" and she, being the local expert on Brooklyn's history, volunteered to show me around the township and explain things. We had a great afternoon and for a couple of weeks thereafter I could keep straight the difference between Brooklyn Township, Brooklyn Village, Brooklyn Heights and all the other confusing flavors it comes in. I spoke to her that winter, saying I wanted to take up her offer of a repeat trip when the weather was better and she said "Don't waste any time; I'm 91 you know!" Sadly I never found the time that summer or any since. I was really happy to have a chance encounter with her in Special Collections several years ago, where she was attending one of our events, but even that didn't lead to another one-on-one visit. She was a lot of fun and highly informative and one lesson I hope I learn from this is not to take it for granted that there will always be second (or third) chances to see someone again, especially when they get to be 99. (Alana Baranick. "Ruth Ketteringham, preserved, promoted history of Cleveland." Plain Dealer. Monday, July 31, 2006. Page B-5)
posted by Bill Barrow @ 10:50:00 PM
3 Comments:
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There's a nice oral history with Mrs. Ketteringham (part of the Tremont Oral History Project) that can be found here:
href=http://academic.csuohio.edu/tah/tremont/logs/Ketterhingham04012003AB.pdf.
Bill, there's a memorial service for Ruth tonight at Archwood UCC--Brian Cummins sent out a good email about it, and you may have received it. If not, contact me through my blog (http://timferris.blogspot.com), and I forward you a copy
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