Ruth Marie Luedemann

A memorial celebration of the life and resurrection of sweet Ruth will be held Saturday, September 6, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. at Wallace Memorial Presbyterian Church, 1146 Greentree Road, Pittsburgh, PA. Following the service, everyone attending is invited to a lunch reception in the church fellowship hall. Inurnment will be later that afternoon at the Byers family plots at Bowman-Flatwoods Cemetery near Franklin, PA.

Ruth was a beautiful, gracious, lovely lady with a kind gentle spirit and an open heart. She was an inspiring and positive example and will always be remembered.

Ruth was born the oldest of five children on September 8, 1923 in West Newton, PA to Edith Trena Johnston and Cooper Freeman Byers. She enjoyed a happy childhood with hardworking Christian parents, close brothers and sisters and neighborhood buddies. Summers were spent on the Byers family farm with Grandparents Mamma and Pappa and her four school teacher aunts and young uncle, doing chores, selling flowers and dairy, reading, singing and playing tennis. Ruth's formative years were founded in faith and family and friends.

The daughter of a one room school teacher, Ruth loved learning and excelled in school. She attended Areford and graduated top ten from South Uniontown High School in 1941. As a lifelong learner, Ruth returned to school in her fifties to earn a Medical Assistant Certificate from the University of Pittsburgh Median School and to study studio art and art history at Chatham College. She possessed a keen mind and an investigative curiosity about her world and the people around her. She continually studied the Bible; art, history and science fascinated her.

Following high school Ruth worked for Bell Telephone as a long-distance operator. She married Otto F. "Frantz" Swegal, also of Uniontown, in 1942 and thereafter devoted herself to family life and raising their three children. Motherhood, homemaking and service was her calling from God and she served well. She was a Girl Scout and Boy Scout leader, she taught Sunday school and vacation Bible school. She made sure her children had music and art lessons and played sports, all the while volunteering at church and in the community and providing a beautiful home full of family and friends. She entertained easily and frequently and welcomed everyone!

Ruth volunteered at Kane, Mayview and Magee Women's hospitals for many years and later at Bethlehem Haven women's shelter. She regularly visited shut-ins, the elderly and the sick. She opened her home to persons awaiting transplant surgery in Pittsburgh and faithfully cared for her Aunt Lee and aging mother, Edith. She cooked for folks and events, sent cards and notes. She had a way with flowers and collected hearts, and shared those freely. She was a giver and a doer with an open heart, always beginning each day with Bible devotions and a list of prayers for others.

Her mottos were: "Never ignore a noble impulse" and "Learn everyone's name." "Do something for somebody else every day." She said God approved when we love lavishly!

Ruth married David H. Luedemann on June 17, 1978 and there began a partnership of love and service of 36 years to family, friends, community, and especially, to Wallace Memorial Presbyterian Church, their second "family". What affection and devotion they found in each other as they resided in Greentree and travelled and visited family and friends their way around the country and world. Home was Uniontown, Pittsburgh, Austin, wherever Ruthie was with family and friends!

Ruth was blessed. She was an avid reader, an accomplished printmaker and artist, a golfer and bowler, a champion bridge player, a choir soprano, a wonderful cook, and always a true friend. She enjoyed all kinds of arts and crafts, especially knitting, needlepoint, sewing, and ceramics. Her Crafty Club pals were some of her dearest friends. She was talented and fun and shared her gifts with care and affection selflessly with those she came in contact with, even up to her final days in Austin.

Ruth will be dearly missed by her beloved family; husband David, and her children, son Franz Brian Swegal, Hollywood, daughter Linda Swegal Kreutz and husband Charles, Austin, and son Gary John Swegal and wife Suzanne, Sewickley, PA; six grandchildren, Christian Derry Swegal, Los Angeles, Elizabeth Marie Kreutz and husband James Bonney, Charles Matthew Kreutz, and Nathan John Kreutz, all of Austin, Dr. Warren Cooper Swegal and wife Cordelia, Ferndale, MI, Hayden Sullivan Swegal, Washington, DC; and her two very special great-grandsons Charles Morgan Bonney and Benjamin Otto Bonney, "Charlie and Ben", and her many, many close friends.

Ruth will be greatly missed by her cherished sisters, Dorothy Elsey, (Jim, deceased) Canton, Ohio, and Eleanor Donato and husband Mick, Minneapolis, and her sister-in-law, Linda Byers, Providence, RI. Her cousins, precious nieces and nephews and their spouses and children will dearly miss Aunt Ruthie, truly a second mother to many.

She was preceded in death by her parents, "Mother" and "Daddy"; her two brothers, Leslie Byers, Uniontown, and Roger Byers, Providence; and recently, her first husband, Dr. Swegal, Churchill.

Ruth wanted to be remembered most as a caring and loving mother and grandmother, a decent caring person who loved God and witnessed to His love while with us. God bless you and thank you, Mom.

She strove for - Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. To these fruits of the Spirit I commit my day. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek His grace. And then, when this day is done, I will rest.

A memorial service was also held Saturday, June 28, 2014 at Central Presbyterian Church, in Austin.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Wallace Memorial Presbyterian Church Music Fund and the Bethlehem Haven women's shelter, Pittsburgh, PA.

Wallace Memorial Presbyterian Church

1146 Greentree Road

Pittsburgh, PA 15220-3131

(412) 561-2431

Bethlehem Haven Women's Shelter

1410 Fifth Avenue

Pittsburgh, PA 15219

(412) 391-1348