Ruth Harmon Waltonbaugh

Ruth was born January 11, 1941 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She was a graduate of Edinboro University in Edinboro, Pennsylvania and the University of South Florida.

Ruth was a preschool teacher in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, then a grade school teacher at Eagle Lake Elementary School in Eagle Lake, Florida. After many years in the classroom, Ruth completed a Masters in Library Science and became the media specialist for Westwood Middle School in Winter Haven, Florida. After retiring from Polk County Schools, Ruth worked for eight more years as the librarian at the public library of the City of Eagle Lake. She volunteered at Lake Region High School, reading to special education students.

Ruth was a lifelong lover of books and reading for entertainment and enlightenment. She was an avid crocheter who created afghans and baby blankets for friends and family far and wide. She enjoyed walking for fitness and fresh air and could be seen most evenings circling her block in Eagle Lake with neighborhood friends. Ruth took up recorder and joined a recorder quartet of seniors who performed recitals in the community. She loved dogs and was a doting dog mother to Sage, Buster and Bear.

Ruth was predeceased by her mother, Dorothy Meyers Harmon, her father, Cloid George Harmon and her husband, Wesley Howard Waltonbaugh, Jr. She is survived by her brother Bill Harmon and her children, Dawn Waltonbaugh and Doug Waltonbaugh.

As literacy stands as a constant theme in Ruth’s life of service to others, her family encourages anyone wishing to commemorate her life to give the gift of books: to your local library, a school, a Friends of the Library organization and especially to friends or loved ones.

“Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds.”

Roxane Gay