Ruthanna Rudolph Wilkinson

A Life in Music

Ruthanna Rudolph Wilkinson, formerly of Hanover, Virginia, died in her daughter Anne’s home in Front Royal on November 19, 2017, at the age of 96. Born on September 29, 1921, in Findlay, Ohio, to Charles and Kizzie Rudolph, she was the youngest of their six daughters. Ruthanna graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, with undergraduate degrees in English and Music Education.

She moved to Richmond, Virginia, after her college mentor, Wendell Sanderson, who had become Director of Music for the Richmond Public Schools, invited her to join his teaching staff. She soon became the alto soloist for the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church choir in Richmond, where she met her future husband Clyde Wilkinson, the choir’s baritone soloist.

Ruthanna was dedicated to music and to teaching, and her home was filled with the tools of her craft: oatmeal box drums, recorders, autoharps, xylophones, and the falmily piano; and with her art – music played on any available instrument, and song. After a hiatus from teaching to raise her family, and meeting the challenge of being an adult student before adult education was in the mainstream, she was awarded her M.A. in Music Education from VCU and returned to teaching music in Richmond’s elementary schools. Along with her husband and several other accomplished musicians, she formed the Mutual Friends of Music, a madrigal group that performed in the Richmond area during the 60’s and 70’s. Later, she and Clyde were soloists with St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Richmond and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Hanover Courthouse. When she retired from her teaching career, she donated her professional archives, which included decades of research, lesson plans, and songs she had written for her classes, to the Library of Virginia in Richmond.

Ruthanna Wilkinson is predeceased by her parents, her sisters, and her husband. She is survived by her son Charles and his wife Sheila of Hendersonville, NC; their son Aaron and his family of Burlington, Vermont; her daughter Anne Wilkinson Schloesser, her husband Robert “Bob” and granddaughter Amelia of Front Royal; and her daughter Carolyn “Kelli” Wilkinson and her husband John Devison of Louisa County, Virginia. Memorial services will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Hanover Courthouse on Sunday, December 10, at 2:00 p.m.

The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, contributions be made in memory of Ruthanna Wilkinson to the St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Choir, PO Box 441, Hanover, VA, 23069.