Ruth Susanna Hill

Ruth Susanna Hill, age 93, of Grants Pass, died Friday, September 9, 2011 at Three Rivers Community Hospital.

A memorial service will be at 3:00 p.m., Friday, September 30, 2011 at Calvary Lutheran Church. Hull & Hull Funeral Directors are in charge of arrangements.

Ruth Susanna was born August 16, 1918 in Ironwood, Michigan to Isaac & Lempi Sand the youngest of four girls. Her parents emigrated from Finland, and she began Kindergarten speaking little English. She graduated from High School in Ironwood in 1936 and Gogebic County Junior College in 1938.

Ruth was ice skating when she met her future husband, Bernard “Ben” Hill, and they married in 1940. After World War II they drove cross country to live in Portland, Oregon. Two years later they returned to the Midwest with their two children to be closer to family. They spent 12 years in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In 1963, after dreaming of and talking about Oregon, they returned to live in Gresham, Oregon, where they built a home, and Ruth was a Librarian for the school district. In 1982 they retired to Florence, Oregon and in 1991 moved to Grants Pass, where her husband died in 1999.

Ruth was a member of PEO in Florence and Calvary Lutheran Church in Grants Pass.

She volunteered with Southern Oregon Medical Center Auxiliary and helped in her daughter-in-law’s Kindergarten class.

Ruth loved music. She performed in choral groups at school, community and church. She and Ben loved to dance. She was an avid reader and she loved travel, visiting England, Italy, Mexico, and her extended family in Finland.

Survivors include a daughter, Sharon Ross of McArthur, California; a son, Bernie Hill of Grants Pass, Oregon; six grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Bernard J. Hill In 1999; her parents; and three sisters.