Ruth Edna Mcdonald

Ruth Edna McDonald died on Thursday night, March 28, 2013, at FHN Memorial Hospital. She was 93, never married, and is remembered as a devoted daughter, a loyal sister, and a loving aunt to her many nieces and nephews. Ruth graduated from Ohio University with a degree in social work. As a social worker intern in Lowell, Massachusetts, she spearheaded the inpatient tuberculosis War-Emergency Rehabilitation Program at Lowell Isolation Hospital. Upon graduation she joined the American Red Cross as a social worker at the Walter Reed Army Hospital during World War II, and then served the New York State Department of Health as a psychiatric social worker at Rochester State Hospital in Rochester, New York. Ruth was one of six children born to John Angus and Mabel Edna McDonald in Rochester, New York. She is survived by her brother, Robert McDonald, of Sarasota, Florida, and her sister, Marjorie (Mig) Roads, of Freeport, Illinois. Mig, who remained close with Ruth throughout her life, remembered her best as a young woman who routinely achieved near perfect scores in the New York State Regent'™s Exam and her gift for hitting homeruns as a softball player. 'Ruth wasn'™t a runner,' Mig said. 'But, she sure could hit a ball.' Ruth developed a reputation for speaking her mind, which she always tried to balance with the love in her heart. Honest and meticulous, she would notoriously express her displeasure for a niece'™s homemade lemon pie, all the while eating every last bite. At the end of a family visit she would look up with her deep blue eyes and whisper, 'Thank you'"for coming.' Burke Tubbs Funeral Home assisted the family with arrangements. Please sign Ruth'™s guestbook at www.burketubbs.com.