Ruth Spataro Woods

Ruth Spataro Woods of Nashville, Tennessee, was born July 9, 1924, in Rawlins Wyoming, who said she did not want to have 92nd birth day party, passed away at her home Friday July 8th. Ruth’s Father Leo Spataro, was born in Bocolaro, Italy in 1880 & migrated to America through Ellis Island in 1906 & the Union Pacific worked him to Rawlins as a railroad mechanic for steam engines. Her mother Josephina Dangilo Spataro was born in Denver in the early in the 1890’s daughter of emigrates from Cosenza, Italy. Being from Wyo, she was unfamiliar with the Civil War, even after moving to Nashville in the 40’s, being a lover of history in Tennessee, attending group study clubs, guest lectures, touring southern mansions,& acting as a docent at Belle Meade Mansion for a total of 70 years, she never really figured out the Southern Way. She was always there telling someone, “Sure you can do it. I’ll help if I can”. And if anything happening around the house, she often was asked “Granny, would you please remove your helping hands” and not long ago I had to tell the her I am not going to order the forester to let her get into the cherry picker in the her yard. Charles Allen Woods, Jr. brought Ruth to Nashville and preceded her in death in 1987. After returning from winter service in the Aleutian Islands (the Japanese landed there), he met Ruth in Rawlins, which is around Cheyenne, Laramie, Medicine Bow area. When asked how they met, Ruth would say “Charlie, who had just arrived at the railroad station, when out to get a cab and came back inside because the cab driver wanted a quarter per bag, and could she give a ride to the hotel when she got off work”. She would add, “I should have known then he was cheap”. When asked how long was he stationed in Rawlins, either of them would respond, “Two weeks”. And everyone would reply, “Two Weeks”!? Ruth is survived by her daughter, Jo Anne Griffin and her husband, William (Griff) Griffin and their son, Kevin DynOmight Cundiff; her son Larry L. Woods with his wife, Elizabeth (Betsy) Cohn Woods and their children, Michelle W. Cayford with husband Sam Cayford and Alexander C. Woods and wife Bailey Strickland Woods. Visitation will be held at Woodlawn Roesch-Patton Funeral Home on Monday, July 11, 2016, from four to six o’clock in the evening. Funeral service will be held on Tuesday, July 12, 2016, at eleven-thirty in the morning, also at Woodlawn. Pallbearers to include Mr. John Beasley, Mr. James Campbell, Mr. Sam Cayford, Mr. Kevin Cundiff, Mr. J.H. Cundiff, and Mr. Alexander Woods.