Ruth Walters

Ruth Alma Walters, the opinionated and much-loved matriarch of the Walters clan, died May 30, 2022, at the age of 94. She was the center of her family and will be deeply missed.

Ruth was born in Montclair, New Jersey, on May 11, 1928.  She was a child during the Depression. Her father, Thomas Della Badia, worked as a letter carrier for the post office, and Ruth grew up in a house full of extended family. Reading was her favorite activity, and "Little Women" was her favorite book. She absorbed ideas about equality and social responsibility from her mother Minnie, who gave sandwiches to needy people who came to the door. Despite her father's steady job, the family lost their house during the lean years and were forced to move several times while Ruth was a child. As a result, she valued stability and routine, and as an adult she stayed in each of her homes for 20 years or more.

As a teenager she met Clifford Stewart Walters, a family acquaintance who had recently returned from the Navy after serving as a machinist in World War II. He had to get his mothers permission to enlist because he was 17. They married when Ruth was 19, on October 11, 1947. Clifford ran a television business, and for a while the Walters family was the talk of the neighborhood because they had a TV that he built from scratch. It had a 7-inch screen. Later, he worked as a test engineer for Bendix, an aeronautics manufacturer, for 25 years. The young couple soon moved to Hazlet, New Jersey. Ruth worked briefly as a hospital lab technician, which she did not particularly enjoy, and quit when she had her first son, Tom. Her son Jim followed soon thereafter, and Ruth focused on maintaining a reliable middle-class household, with dinner on the table at 5:30 p.m. Both Ruth and Cliff were close to Ruth's brother Joe, who had three sons, and the families spent vacations together.

Ruth had a lively intellect and robust political opinions. She approved of feminism and supported civil rights. She loved to read and believed deeply in the life-changing power of books. When her sons were young, she was the president of the Parent Teacher Association at their elementary school. The school had no library, which she found unacceptable, so she rallied the PTA to build one. The library started out in a closet and grew to be a vital part of the school under her stewardship. A few years later, she was hired as a librarian at Raritan High School, which her son Jim, a student there, did not appreciate at the time. She worked there for 10 years and at Upland High School in California for another 10 years. She loved being around books, keeping things organized, and bossing teenagers around.

Ruth was delighted by the birth of her first granddaughter. When Tom and his wife moved to California, taking the baby with them, Ruth and Cliff decided to move. They landed in Rancho Cucamonga in 1981 and stayed there for the next 40 years. Jim and his wife migrated too, and for most of that decade there was a regular cadence of family dinners, birthday parties, and beach vacations. Ruth enjoyed spending time with her four granddaughters, Suzanne, Christine, Amanda, and Jennifer. She took them to the park and the library, taught them to play gin rummy, allowed them to build forts out of her furniture, and fed them a steady diet of root beer floats and Dove chocolate.

Ruth enjoyed sewing and needlepoint and was a longtime member of the Rancho Cucamonga Quilt Guild. She socialized with her quilting and knitting friends on a weekly basis for many years, producing dozens of quilts, many of which are still treasured by family members. Her grandchildren retain a variety of handmade beanies, which she knitted with fervor and mailed to soldiers serving overseas.

Clifford passed away in 2010, and Ruth lived independently in her home until she was 92. She retained her acerbic sense of humor until the end. Her incisive wit, discerning judgment, and opinionated conversational style live on in her family members, who will gather to celebrate her life June 17, 2022, at the home of Jim and Beth Walters. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages donations to the Rancho Cucamonga Library .

Ruth is survived by her sons Tom (Carolyn) and Jim (Beth); grandchildren Suzanne (Ero) Gray, Christine (Dustin) Fundell, Amanda (Jason) Walters-Wu, and Jennifer (Robert) Fuchs; and great-grandchildren Kaitlin, Dylan, Lily, and Dean Fundell, Adrian James Fuchs, and Hayden Walters-Wu. Also by her favorite nephew.