Ruth Kerlen McBrayer

Ruth Kerlen McBrayer, 93, died of natural causes on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, at The Terraces at Peachtree Hills Place in Atlanta, Georgia. She died in her sleep with a smile on her face, still looking at least 10 years younger than her age.

Born and raised on a farm in Almond, Arkansas, Ruth was the only child of the late Ervin Monroe Kerlen and Beulah Sutherland Kerlen. The first in her family to attend college, Ruth graduated from the University of Central Arkansas at age 20, then worked as a middle-school English teacher in Little Rock. There, she met James Bruce McBrayer, a Yale graduate and Korean War veteran working his way through Harvard Business School. In 1958, Ruth was accepted into and subsequently attended Radcliffe College’s Publishing Procedures Course. Ruth and Bruce married in Little Rock following their graduations in May 1959, packed their car, and moved to New York City, where Bruce launched his business career and Ruth worked in PR at Squibb International. Ruth’s lifelong love for art, books, music, fashion, and theater started there.

In 1962, following the birth of their daughter Laurie, Bruce and Ruth moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where their second daughter Martha was born. During the next 60 years, Ruth made lifelong friends in St. Louis in their first neighborhood in University City, in Ladue, where they raised their daughters, and in Clayton, where Ruth spent the last third of her life.

Ruth worked for 11 years as Docent Coordinator at The St. Louis Art Museum, and later as a Research Coordinator at John Burroughs School and Washington University. She finished her PR career working for 12 years as Director of Seminary Relations at Eden Theological Seminary.

Widowed at age 61, Ruth chose to live the final third of her life with purpose and adventure. As a volunteer, she worked tirelessly at The ScholarShop (where she befriended many scholarship students and encouraged at least one to date his eventual wife), at The St. Louis Art Museum, and at Ladue Chapel (where she was an elder and served on the Lee Institute, memorial garden, adult education and several pastor search committees). She attended courses in politics, literature, and music appreciation at Wash. U. for some 25 years. She was a proud member of the Womens Democratic Forum of Greater St. Louis and The Wednesday Club of Saint Louis. Ruth regularly patronized the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and continued attending the book club she started with friends in 1972 for some 40 years (one of their buttons read: “I read all 581 pages of Invisible Man.”). She traveled the world (including throughout Europe, Russia, China, Mexico, Canada, and Egypt). She regularly visited her family in Atlanta and New York. She loved her family and friends. Her intelligence, elegance, and wit will live on.

Survivors include her daughters Laurie (Ron Coleman) and Martha (Alison Forner); her grandson Will Coleman; and her granddaughter Claire Coleman Keers (Mac Keers). Her family would like to thank the wonderful staff at The Terraces at Peachtree Hills Place for the care she received. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in memory of Ruth K. McBrayer to The St. Louis Art Museum or to a designated scholarship at the Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis. A memorial service will be held at Ladue Chapel on March 28 at 1 p.m.