Ruth Virginia Petrillo

The family soon moved to the Denver area and stayed in a house on 38th and Walnut until she graduated from Manual High School. She and her high school friends vowed to stay friends after high school and formed the KG Club. She stayed in touch with the members of the KG Club for the rest of her life. A feat unheard of today. She attended on year of college at the University of Northern Colorado but she was drawn to the bright lights of Hollywood and moved to California for a year where she worked close to the infamous Hollywood and Vine. She moved back to Colorado a year later because she missed the changing of the seasons.

She met the love of her life, Mike Petrillo at the Elitch Trocadero Ballroom and they married on July 10, 1948. They moved to Idaho Springs to manage a bar called The Duck Inn, famous for the last place where Buffalo Bill Cody allegedly had his last drink. After selling the Duck Inn, they moved back to Denver where they built a house in Wheat Ridge. Ruth raised four children there before she sold it in 1985 to move to her current residence in Westminster. She loved to gamble and took many trips with Mike to Las Vegas and her KG Club friends over the years. She also was in a bowling league at Wheat Ridge Lanes and bowled on a league with her KG pals and their husbands.

She was also a member of the Topaz Club. They got together once a month to play Keno. She loved many things in her life including her family, food, gambling, and travel. When the children were teens she and her sister, Marietta, cooked meals for the lunchtime crowd at the 40/40 Club, a bar owned by Mike and her brother-in-law, Ted. During the 1970s, she hit the road and cooked for the Blue Knights Drum and Bugle Corps while they toured all across the west.

After the untimely death of her husband Mike in 1975, she took to traveling the world. Her first trip was to Europe with some of her KG Club members. They visited the Swiss Alps, Germany, Sweden, and Great Britain.She took her first cruise with her children in 1979 and after that, she was hooked on cruising. It combined all her loves: food, gambling, and travel. She loved cruising so much that she took over 20 cruises in her lifetime, including two across the Panama Canal and one from Los Angeles to Australia that lasted a month. She was part of the opening crew at the Red Lobster in 44th and Wadsworth and worked there for over 10 years before she retired at 65. But she soon grew bored with retirement and went to work as a demo lady in grocery stores. She was offered a full time demo position for Sam’s Club on 52nd and Wadsworth and worked there full time until Sam’s Club laid her off. She finally retired for good after that.

Her final years were spent at home. She loved to go out to eat with her family. She was healthy her whole life. She never had to take any medications on an on-going basis, a feat that stunned all the doctors that saw her. She lived a very full life. We will miss her smile and good nature.

She is survived by her loving family; children, Mary Ann Sawyer, David (Dericci Ells) Petrillo, Donna (Kevin) Uhl, and Sharon (Marshall) Fisher, grandchildren; Stephanie (Jason) Garner, Nathan (Amberly) Uhl, Rachel Ann Fisher, Tiffany Michelle Sawyer, Deidra (Daniel) Gaul, Michael David Fisher, Nicole Powell and Natasha Powell, great-grandchildren, Zebulon Garner, Zoey Garner, Dillon Gaul, . She was preceded in death by her loving husband, Michael Petrillo.

Visitation Wednesday, October 12, 2016, from 4pm to 7pm at Olinger Crown Hill Mortuary. Services Thursday, October 13, 2016, 12pm in the Chapel of Peace located at Olinger Crown Hill Mortuary, 7777 W. 29th Ave., Wheat Ridge, Colorado 80033.

Arrangements under the direction of Olinger Crown Hill Mortuary, Cemetery & Arboretum, Wheat Ridge, CO.