Ruth Ramsay Yanne (Ramsay)

August 9, 1930 — October 7, 2020

Manchester, VT

Ruth R. Yanne was born in Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, to Charles F. and Elizabeth B. Ramsay, in a year that she preferred not to publicize. An only child, her parents owned and ran the Ramsay movie theatre in town. She lived for most of her life in Longmeadow, Mass., and died in Manchester, VT on October 3, 2020. She majored in English at Bucknell University, and although her distinctive handwriting looked beautiful on the page, it was decipherable to only a few; her professors praised her ideas, but begged her to type her term papers. She married her college sweetheart Edward D. Yanne (d.2001), also of PA. The young family moved to Wales for three halcyon years that defined the childhood of their two children, Laura, of Dorset, Vermont, and Steven, of Longmeadow, Mass.

Ruth loved all animals, most especially dogs, with an appreciation for horses and a fondness for squirrels, and was a vegetarian and supporter of animal welfare. An avid reader, she loved nonfiction, biographies, letters, the Times on Sunday. She enjoyed regional theatre and museums, art galleries, lectures and the symphony. She disliked mornings, typos, spiders, cooking. She always loved Elvis, used to love Richard Burton and Tom Jones (both Welshmen), and sometimes the Red Sox or Yankees. A creature of contradictions, her opinions were always strongly held, and often surprising. She appreciated a deft turn of phrase and pithy repartee, and clean jokes, and poetic justice. She kept a Commonplace Book that is a repository containing wide scope and deep thinking. Her children will forever wonder what Ruth would have said, or thought, knowing that their guesses can only ever be wild ones.

Famous for her beauty, with her luminous skin, intelligent blue eyes, snow white hair, cherished, irreplaceable, irrepressible Ruth died with her children by her side. ("Surrounded by family" sounds like an ambush, she once remarked). A private family ceremony will honor her wishes, and heartfelt thanks go to Bayada Hospice and to everyone at Equinox Terrace for their kindness and extraordinary compassion.

She asked if anyone should care to make a memorial donation ("Well, it could happen!"), her favorite animal rescue charities are: Dakin Humane Society, 171 Union Street, Box 6307, Springfield, MA 01101; or the Thomas J. O'Connor Foundation, 627 Cottage St., Springfield, MA 01104.

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Ruth Ramsay Yanne (Ramsay)

August 9, 1930 — October 7, 2020

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