RUTH MILDRED GILBERT (BORN: RUTH M. SWEDBERG)
Ruth Mildred Gilbert, who was very proud of being born on Memorial Day, 1920, in Wolf Point, Montana, died peacefully on Independence Day, Saturday July 4, 2009, in Agoura Hills, California, with her daughter and son-in-law by her side.
Ruth was senior class president at Wolf Point High School then went on to the University of Minnesota where she became the president of Alpha Delta Pi sorority before graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education.
The young college graduate then moved to Traverse City, Michigan, where the school superintendent’s secretary introduced Ruth to the secretary’s cousin Donald Earl Gilbert.
Ruth and Don were married in a Methodist Church in Tacoma, Washington, with Ruth’s parents, who traveled with their daughter by train to Tacoma, as witnesses. Don had interrupted his medical studies to serve at Fort Lewis with the U.S. Army during the war.
The newlyweds soon returned to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where Don returned to complete his studies at the University of Michigan Medical School while Ruth taught elementary school children in Dearborn, Michigan.
Their first child, Karol Jean, was born the year before Don graduated. Their son Douglas Wayne was born in Saginaw, Michigan, near the small town of Mayville, Michigan, where Don had set up his practice
The Gilbert family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, in the ‘60s and was joined there by Ruth’s parents during the winters.
Ruth remained active in Michigan and Arizona with the alumnae groups of her beloved Alpha Delta Pi sorority and also volunteered with the Auxiliary of the American Medical Association, with Crossroads Methodist Church in Phoenix, the Girl Scouts, the library associations, garden club and Bible groups as well as parent groups at both Jean and Doug’s schools.
On July 29, 2005, Ruth and Don quietly celebrated their 60th anniversary at the assisted care facility in Phoenix where Ruth had resided for several years. After Dr. Gilbert passed away on Nov. 5, 2005, Ruth’s daughter and son-in-law, Jean and Steve Hawkins, brought Ruth to the Agoura Hills Senior Retreat where she died peacefully on Saturday, July 5, 2009.
Ruth leaves her wonderful brother and sister-in-law, Robert and Kathy Swedberg of St. Peter, Minnesota, daughter and son-in-law, Jean and Steve Hawkins of Agoura Hills, California; son and daughter-in-law, Doug and Steph Gilbert of Glendale, Arizona; grandson Kirk Gilbert Hawkins of Studio City, California and granddaughter Brooke Elizabeth Hawkins of New York City.
Funeral will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, July 9, at the United Methodist Church of Westlake Village, CA. Ruth’s body will be laid to rest during an 11 a.m. graveside ceremony on Monday, July 13, 2009, with a Trinity Lutheran Church representative presiding along with a native American religious representative at the Greenwood cemetery in Wolf Point, Montana, near her parents (Lillian Elizabeth and Charles Peter “Scoop” Swedberg), along with some of the ashes of Ruth’s husband.
Ruth’s daughter “Jeanie” remembers many of Ruth’s stories about Wolf Point. The most special is the fact that Ruth and her best friend Louise Shawley, also from Wolf Point, throughout all these years would call each other on their birthdays. Ruth had many other friends whose roots started together in Wolf Point. Jeanie also remembers how exciting Stampede Days were for the whole family; how proud they all were that Grandpa Swedberg was manager of the Great Northern Railroad station in Wolf Point; that grandpa once arranged for Jeanie and Doug to ride in the engine of one of those magnificent trains; “Scoop” also asked one of the Indian chiefs to meet his grandchildren Jeanie and Doug and that kind chief let Doug check out the chief’s magnificent headdress. Once in Phoenix, Ruth saw a Montana license plate with a number that indicated the driver was from an area near Wolf Point. According to Jeanie, Ruth followed that car home and she and the female car owner (who was in fact from Montana, near Wolf Point) became friends while they both lived in Arizona!