Ruth Anne Stebbins

(Ruth) Anne Stebbins, 71 of Lexington South Carolina died 30 May 2010 on her 51st wedding anniversary in Palliative Care at Palmetto Health Richland. She expired after a year of illnesses which included advanced cervical cancer and extensive radiation treatment at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston.

She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. Her mother was born Ruth Morgan, and her father was Colonel Douglas Chesley Barton, U.S. Army. She was married at the Fort Shafter Chapel, Honolulu, Hawaii to LTjg John Stebbins, USNR. She attended Wakefield High School in Arlington VA and finished credits for a psychology major at George Washington University, Washington DC. She was a devoted Navy wife for eight years then continued as a stay-at-home mother of four in the Silver Spring MD area, becoming a soccer mom. She later turned her self-taught needlecraft skill and experience making clothes, knitted sweaters and afghans into proprietorship of Poor Richard’s Needlecraft in Wheaton MD for 10 years. She read extensively throughout her life and became computer literate at age 50, eventually qualifying as a Macintosh technician and volunteering her services to Laurel MD schools, and to Apple Computer user forums. She lived with her husband in retirement for five years in Longs SC before moving recently to Lexington.

She is survived by her husband John, son Michael of Germantown MD, son Peter of Greenville SC (an All-American soccer player and member of the 1984 National Champion Clemson Tiger Soccer Team), daughter Susan Burklew of Chantilly VA and son David of Lexington SC; brother Captain James Barton USN Ret. of Oriental NC, and sister Mary O’Connell of Norfolk VA; also, eight grand-children with another one expected in Lexington this fall. Anne may you rest in peace in love of all your family and friends.

The family wishes to thank the staff of Palmetto Health Richland for the extraordinarily wonderful care she received over the last two months, and especially to the Palliative Care Department, to which we would like donations sent instead of flowers, at Palliative Care Program, 1400 Pickens Street, PO Box 7275, Columbia SC 29202, Attn: Alice Hughes.

The family will be holding a private service at their home in Lexington, SC on June 6, 2010.