Margaret Josephine Ruiz

Margaret McKay Ruiz was born in Shoal River, Manitoba CANADA on January 13, 1919 to Arthur McKay and Catherine Sinclair McKay. At the age of five she moved with her family to Grand Rapids, Manitoba, a former Hudson Bay Company post on the Saskatchewan River. She was of Metís ancestry and fluent in Cree as well as English.

Mom lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Victoria, British Columbia to July, 1948 when she married Dad, Frank Ruiz of Chicago, Illinois. Together they moved to Seattle, Washington.

Mom trained as a clothing buyer in Canada at Eaton’s department store and in the United States worked for the former Bon Marche department store for 21 years from which she retired in 1983.

The great outdoors was second nature to Mom. She camped into her 70’s and hiked into her 80’s. She also loved to travel and visited several countries in Europe and traveled throughout Canada and the United States.

She was a devout Episcopalian serving her church in the Altar Guild for over three decades. With a church group Mom traveled to Israel and the Holy Land In 1987.

She had a gift for writing and captured her life in vivid detail in her memoirs written over a period of ten years. She was a lover of poetry and also was herself a poet.

After retirement Mom served on the Election Board for twenty-five years and volunteered with the local Food Bank. With Dad she vacationed to Mazatlan, Mexico every year for 15 years until she was in her late 80’s.

Mom had a very generous nature and a great sense of humor. She loved music, dancing, flowers, entertaining, and the holidays.

Mom is survived by her devoted husband Frank—with whom she was married for 66 years—her two sisters, Kathleen Klassen of British Columbia and Mary Rutherford (Jim) of Nova Scotia, and her sister-in-law, Barbara McKay, also of British Columbia; by her daughters Fransing Daisy (Kris) , Debbie Ruiz (Todd) and Catherine Kigerl (William) of Seattle, Washington; by her grandchildren Saroj, Raj, Chuck, and Cheyenne, and by several nieces and nephews and other extended family and friends.

She was deeply loved and we will all miss her.

She was preceded in death by her brother’s Reggie, Arthur, Raymond and Ferguson McKay, all of Canada.

A memorial service will be held on December 6, 2014, 1pm, at Saint Columba’s Abbey Church, 26715 Military Road South, Kent, WA 98032. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations in Margaret’s name be made to The Alzheimer’s Association.