Charlotte Ross

Charlotte Frutkin Ross, widow of the first hematologist in the state of Arkansas who influenced generations of medical students, died April 30, 2015. She was 89.

The youngest of five children, Ross was born in New York, where she later met and married S. William Ross. In 1949 they moved to Little Rock, where they raised their four daughters.

Although Ross had stints working outside the home managing an office and writing radio ads, she spent most of her married life working in the home caring for her family and participating in outside activities.

During the civil rights turmoil of the Fifties, she was a member of the steering committee of the Little Rock Women’s Emergency Committee to Open Our Schools, the first organized community action group to stop school closings. As depicted by author Sara Alderman Murphy in Breaking the Silence: Little Rock 1958 – 1963, this committee, comprising young mothers of school-age children, believed that keeping schools open was the only route to a viable public education system.

An extrovert with a passion for drama, a good joke, and family, Ross was an observer of human behavior. Her enthusiasm for performance included activity in community theater — such as her starring role in Laura — acting in local TV ads, doing radio voiceovers and recording stories for the blind. She was an avid bridge player at the Little Rock Duplicate Bridge Club. She often entertained her family by reading her own poetry and that of great poets, as well as dramatic monologues — memorably affecting a Brooklyn accent in the role of a 1930’s salesgirl in Macy’s bargain basement. Never able to resist telling a good joke, she would routinely call her grandchildren away at college, both to connect and to elicit a laugh.

Charlotte Ross was predeceased by the love of her life, husband of 69 years, Bill Ross, and their first grandchild, Alan Ross Kumpe.

She is survived by daughters Pamela Bona, Leslie Patterson and her husband Ralph, Meredith Ross, Linda Ross; grandchildren Elliott Kumpe, Rachael Bona Bonser, Jennifer Bona, Rebecca Patterson Karim, Samantha Patterson Sloan and eleven great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the American Cancer Society or the Alzheimer’s Association. A private family memorial service will be held.

Arrangements under the direction of Griffin Leggett Healey & Roth Funeral Ho, LITTLE ROCK, AR.