Ruth is survived by Don Lindsay (LHS Class if 1949), her husband of 65 years. Ruth and Don met in high school and what started as two love-struck teenagers grew into a sprawling family and a lasting legacy. Ruth will be lovingly remembered by Don along with their children and their spouses Alan and Anne (Morrison) Lindsay, Susan and Van Habib, Linda and Rick Kempf, and Ray and Karen Lindsay along with her 9 grandchildren, 8 great grandchildren and 7 nieces and nephews.
Ruth was dearly loved and cherished by her large and boisterous family, who was by far her greatest source of pride and the center of her life. She always called out the best in us and encouraged us to aspire with a proper blend of challenging and nurturing. Nothing gave her more joy than to spend time at the innumerous family gatherings, where she would sit with a huge smile of beaming pride as she surveyed this wonderful crowd that she and Don had created and nurtured.
The Lindsay family seemed to find any possible reason they possibly could to get together for a party. A prime example of the lengths they would go is when Ruth’s daughter Sue had to take her daughter to a doctor’s appointment, which happened to be close to Ruth and Don’s house. Ruth used this as a reason to tell the rest of the family that since Sue and her kids will be there, maybe they should also drop by, we could have a dinner, and so on until suddenly there were 15 family members all enjoying a dinner party. Don came home wondering why all these people were at their house finding that it was due to a simple doctor’s appointment for her granddaughter.
There was rarely a weekend in the summer when the Lindsay family was not at some Kansas lake camping, and Ruth took particular pride in running her camper/food wagon and made sure nobody went hungry. As good as Ruth was at her cooking and organizational skills, she was absolutely horrible at driving the boat, the camper, or backing the boat trailer into the boat ramp. After numerous episodes which resulted in damaged boat motors, trailers, and assorted other vehicles, Don fondly nicknamed her “Klutch”, which ended up being not only her lifelong nickname, it was her new name. Many friends never knew her name was Ruth, they knew her only as Klutch.
Ruth also was very fond of her extended and beyond extended family. She would do extensive research and find out some third cousin-thrice-removed was going to be coming through town and she would have to have another party. Ruth actually felt compelled to throw a party for her nephew’s former nanny from Australia who none of the family had ever met, all because she just happened to be traveling through Kansas City. The family parties grew to legendary status with annual “Love-In” gatherings that lasted a week long and resembled slightly smaller versions of Woodstock. The close relationships between deeply extended family members built through these gatherings exist to this day.
Ruth was an executive in the insurance industry for 35 years. She was notable for trailblazing a career in insurance at a time when there were few women in the industry. Ruth eventually rose to Vice President of Underwriting at Marsh and McLennan.
With few mentors or role models, she relied on her instinct to balance high expectations with caring support and encouragement. Even today, few leaders successfully pull off this balancing act. After she left the industry, she continued this approach through a variety of environments. She even found a way to use these talents at her nursing facility where she organized, managed and adopted both the staff and residents.
While she will be dearly missed, she will not be forgotten as the values that she instilled in her family, and the hilarious stories of our many camping trips and family “love-ins” will carry on in our memories for generations. Visitation will be from 1:00 to 3:00 PM on Saturday, November 17 at Porter Funeral Home 8535 Monrovia, Lenexa, KS 66215. Funeral services will be held directly after at 3:00 at the same location. Ruth would have wanted to give her loved ones the opportunity to plan their travel to come celebrate her life. Since the memorial service is several weeks away, we would like to encourage everybody to leave your Online Condolences.
In lieu of flowers, you may send contributions to the
Parkinson's Foundation Heartland Chapter.
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