Ruth Lillian Davis, 83, of Columbia, passed away on Friday, April 12, 2019. She was born in Takoma Park, Maryland daughter of the late Oscar Wunder and Lillian Isabelle Shermer Scherger. Ruth was a graduate of Montgomery Blair High School, and thereafter attended the University of Maryland, College Park for two years. After getting married in February of 1956, to the late Alton Kenneth Davis, her next 13 years were occupied with being a homemaker and mother of three children.
It was after relocating to Elizabethtown that she decided to complete her education and find a career path. She enrolled in Elizbethtown College as a full-time student, all the while being a devoted full-time mother and maintaining a part-time job on campus. She graduated in 1972 with honors. Several years later, while teaching full-time, she completed her Masters in Education at Millersville State College (now Millersville University), and her story of being a 40 year old wife and mother returning to school to earn a degree with fellow students half her age was featured in the Lancaster newspaper at the time of her graduation.
Ruth taught in the Donegal School District for 24 years, primarily as a kindergarten teacher at the Maytown Elementary School. She had a passion for reading both as a teacher and as her own personal pastime. She took great pleasure in travel, both domestic and in Europe, always looking for a new, interesting place to visit. She loved being a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, and she loved losing her heart to a rascally cat or dog.
Ruth was preceded in death by her longtime companion, Albert McLaughlin. She is survived by her three children: Anne-Marie (Timothy) Killian; Kevin (Deborah) Davis; and Catherine Davis. She is also survived by four grandchildren: Matthew (Shannon) Killian; Jonathan (Valerie) Killian; Brian (Kaitlyn) Davis and Caroline Davis. Three great-grandchildren: Tyler, Austin and Sawyer Killian.
A Memorial Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Peter Catholic Church, 121 South Second Street, Columbia on Friday, April 26, 2019 at 11:00 A.M. Final Commendation and Farewell will be in Fairview Cemetery, Wrightsville. Visitation will be from 10:00 A.M. to 11:00 A.M. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Columbia Public Library, 24 South Sixth St., Columbia, PA 17512. Arrangements by the Workman Funeral Homes, Inc., Columbia/Mountville. To send an online condolence, visit the condolence page.