Ruth E. Houseman Thurtell

Among friends and family, she loved to belt out tunes on her harmonica.

Mrs. Thurtell’s music ended suddenly on Thursday, February 27, when she died suddenly of complications brought on by intestinal illness and congestive heart failure. She was 94.

She was born Ruth Eleanor Houseman on February 18, 1920, in Grand Rapids. Her father, Martin Houseman, operated a meat market in Lowell. Her mother, Sue Houseman, was a seamstress.

Ruth Eleanor joined the choir of Lowell’s First Congregational Church in 1932 when she was 12 years old. She loved her church, and her strong, mellow, perfect-pitched voice was a vibrant part of its services for decades.

She learned to play harmonica as a girl. Later, she played trombone, violin, viola, cello, and piano. She was drum major in the Lowell High School marching band.

A 1938 graduate of Lowell High School, she earned a bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan College of Education (now Central Michigan University) in 1942.

In 1943, she married Howard Thurtell, a World War II U.S. Air Army Air Forces pilot, who died September 4, 2009.

The 1943 song “Comin' In On a Wing and a Prayer” was a favorite of the newlyweds.

Asked recently to play, Mrs. Thurtell picked up her little mouth organ and performed a well-practiced version of “A Wing and a Prayer,” complete with after beats.

Mrs. Thurtell is survived by sons Joel, Craig, and Steve; grandsons Adam and Abe; granddaughter Leila, and niece Marylyn McLeod.