Ruth Margaret Tyler

Ruth Margaret Tyler, 89, of Salem, Oregon, died peacefully in Salem, OR while surrounded by loved ones on January 22nd, 2023.

Services will be held on Thursday, February 9th at 11:00 a.m. at Queen of Peace Church, 4227 Lone Oak Road SE, Salem, Oregon.

Ruth was born in Boise, Idaho on February 17th, 1933 to Rudolph Carl “Rudd” and Margaret Anne Gregerson. “Ruthie” attended Washington Elementary School, Boise Junior High and Boise Senior High, graduating in 1951.

Ruth was born during the Great Depression, so her family created their own entertainment with outdoor activities such as camping, fishing and hunting. Her years of hunting with her Dad made her so skilled with the trigger that she earned her varsity letter on the Boise High rifle team. Ruth told tales of her Senior Girl Scout troop’s antics at Camp Alice Pittenger in McCall, Idaho, including a snowshoe hike across a frozen Payette Lake. Their breakfast eggs froze solid atop the toboggan her dad constructed just for the journey.

Ruth was the only one of her friends to have her own car, but only because her father rebuilt a totaled 1940’s Chevy Coupe from the junkyard. This made Ruth chauffeur for her group of friends she called “The Crew”. One year “The Crew” pranked their high school rivals before a big football game, decorating the Nampa football field with a large Boise High “B” made from flour.

In 1947, a wealthy Boise patron sponsored “Statesman Free Ski School” lessons at Bogus Basin for local school kids, birthing Ruth’s lifelong love of the sport. That same year, her father and older brother, Ralph, built a log cabin in McCall, offering the Gregersons escape from Boise’s summertime heat.

In the fall of 1951, Ruth moved to Portland to attend Lewis and Clark College’s nursing program affiliated with Emanuel Hospital. She joined the Delta Phi Gamma sorority, serving as the chapter president. Ruth became the first woman to join the Lewis and Clark College ski team. Ruth and her nursing school classmates graduated in 1955, their tight-knit group staying in touch from that day onward.

Ruth married Joseph “Joe” Tyler on June 9th, 1956 at The Madeleine Parish in Portland. The following week, Joe and Ruth moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming where Joe served as a dentist and was a captain at Warren Air Force Base. James was born in Cheyenne in 1957 and then Lizabeth in 1958.

In 1959, the Tylers moved to Philadelphia where Joe completed the didactic portion of his oral surgery training at the University of Pennsylvania. Ruth supported the family as a postpartum delivery nurse. The following year, Joe and Ruth moved to Georgia for Joe’s oral surgery residency program at a veteran’s hospital affiliated with Emory University. While in Atlanta, Ruth worked as a private duty nurse until Jean was born in 1961.

Ruth decided it was time to leave Atlanta when James started speaking like a southerner. James said, ’I’m goin’ down yonder to play with Glen,” and sent the family packing back west.

So in 1962, the Tyler family moved to Salem where Joe began his oral surgery practice with Dr. Robert Siddoway. Melanie was born in 1966, Andy following in 1969.

Ruth embraced her new community, joining the dental auxiliary, Salem Swim and Tennis Club, and a women’s investment club. She and Joe became founding members of Queen of Peace Catholic Church and played active roles in its school board and parents’ club.

Ruth remained physically active into her senior years, still snow skiing and playing tennis until she turned 80. She took to the ski slopes with her grandchildren on her 80th birthday, proudly wearing a Viking helmet in recognition of her Norwegian heritage.

Ruth provided a warm home for her children and a welcoming space for friends and relatives. She encouraged her kids to have friends over to the house, and they did. Holidays meant multiple tables of happy chaos with an extra plate for anyone who needed a place to go.

Unpretentious and humble, Ruth cared more about other people and their comfort than about herself. She often said, “Love is messy,” meaning a messy house didn’t matter if joy had created it.

Known for her wide smile and easy laugh, Ruth knew not to take life too seriously but instead make the most of all it offered. She looked for reasons to gather people together for a party, especially if she could include a “program,” as she called it. In the summer, she hosted “Grandma Camp,” pitching her old sheepherder’s tent for the grandchildren to sleep in her backyard in-between her many programs.

Ruth loved her McCall cabin, and every summer as her family crossed the border into Idaho, Ruth would sing the Idaho state song together with her kids. Her children still know the words.

Ruth loved to talk, always up for extended conversations with just about anyone over the phone. She claimed she never needed therapy because she could just sort out any problems on the phone with her best friend, Lois Schutte Davenport. Grandkids knew they could call at any time, chatting as long as they wanted.

For decades Ruth met with the same women for the “Crazy Ladies Bridge Club,” admitting they talked more than played cards. If you wanted to know the scoop on what was really happening in Salem, you could probably find it out from Ruth’s bridge club.

Ruth modeled how to serve others, caring for grand babies, foreign exchange students and elderly aunts. She was always looking out for other people. She housed her frail mother and her father-in-law for extended periods of time.

As a young girl in Boise, Ruth attended the Quaker Church and the Lutheran Church as a teenager and young adult. She converted to Catholicism a few years after marrying Joe. She carried a strong faith in God her entire life.

Ruth was married to Joe for 61 years until his passing in 2017. Ruth lived in her same home from 1969 until her death.

Survivors include her children James (Chico, CA), Liz Tyler (Cullen Stephenson) (Portland, OR), Jean Southworth (James) (Salem, OR), Melanie Kanz (Bill) (Woodinville, WA), and Andy Tyler (Milagra) (Eugene, OR). Ruth is pre-deceased by her husband, Joe, and brother, Ralph Gregerson. She leaves behind nephew Reed Gregerson and niece Paula Gregerson. Ruth’s greatest legacy is her family including her great-grandchildren (Theo, Remy, Scout, Henry, Charlie, Cameron, Jessica, and Isaac) and her grandchildren (Sarah, Tyler, Zach, Annie, Taylor, Cooper, Suzanne, Jacob, Sam, and Mason) who will never forget Grandma Ruth or her Grandma Camp.

Her legacy will live on through her children, grand-children, great-grandchildren and all others that she mothered. She was a shining example of love and kindness and her greatest wish was that we all take care of one another.