Ruth May Allen Skidmore

LOGAN — Ruth May Allen Skidmore passed away peacefully on Satur- day, December 27, 2014. She was 101 years old.
Ruth was born on May 21, 1913 at her family’s home in Providence, Utah. She was the third of five children and the youngest of three daughters born to Albern Ethan Allen and Winifred Price Oldham. She attended Providence Elementary School, where her father was principal, and graduated from South Cache High School. She then went on to Utah Stage Agricultural College (now Utah State University) where, in addition to her studies, she served as Student Body Secretary, belonged to the Beta Delta Sorority, and won the Clark Gable Beauty Contest.
As a young girl Ruth earned money thinning sugar beets and picking beans, but quickly traded toiling in fields for teach- ing piano to neighborhood children as her own musi- cal abilities grew. She went on to master secretarial skills in College, which led to positions as the Cache County Deputy Assessor and in the Comptroller’s Office at the USAC until her first child was born
in 1940. She returned to teaching piano and organ lessons while her children were young, and after they were raised she worked at Everton’s Hardware and the Relief Society Distribution Center.
She met her husband-to- be, William W. Skidmore, at a dance in Providence as a high school senior. It was love at first sight for them both. They had a 7-year courtship, Ruth proposed on a leap year and they were married in the Logan LDS Temple on September 14, 1937. She and William raised two sons and three daughters: George A. (Dee Anne), Spokane, Wash.; William W. Jr. (Bonita), Sun City, Ariz.; Ruth Marie S. England (Clark), Logan, Utah; Winnie May S. Burton (Kent), Arlington, Va.; Linda Kay S. Daines (Richard –deceased), New York, NY. Ruth and William were also foster parents to two Apache children through the LDS Church Indian Placement Program. Their direct descendants num- ber 107, with five children, 31 grandchildren, and 71 great-grandchildren. They were married for 71 years until William’s death in 2009.
Ruth lived most of her married life in the Logan 9th Ward where she served in the Relief Society, as Primary President and teacher, as ward Organist for over 63 years and in the Logan Temple for 14 years. She served with William as a missionary in the Bern Switzerland Temple Mission from 1982-83. After mov- ing to the Pioneer Valley Lodge Branch in 2006, Ruth accepted her last calling as the Relief Society organist at the age of 93.
Ruth was blessed with exceptionally good health, good nature, great beauty and a subtle sense of humor. She was a gifted accompanist on piano and organ. A skilled seamstress, she made most of her own clothing, her daughters’ prom dresses and wedding gowns, and designed and stitched over one hundred quilts for children and grandchildren. She was
an excellent cook and gra- cious hostess, growing and preserving most of her own food. She was an avid read- er and enjoyed watching her beloved Utah Jazz. She was a selfless caregiver to her parents, as well as her husband for many years. Ruth was a Member of the Daughters of the Utah Pio- neers and a descendant of the Mormon Battalion. On May 21st, 2013 Governor Gary Herbert welcomed her with a handwritten note to the exclusive Utah’s Cente- narians club.
Funeral Services will be held on Tuesday December 30th, 2014 at one o’clock p.m. preceded by a viewing beginning at 11:30am at the Allen-Hall Mortuary, 34 East Center Street in Logan, Utah. Following the ser- vice she will be laid to rest beside her beloved William at Providence Cemetery.
The family wishes to express thanks to Meg Tag- gert, friends and staff of the Pioneer Valley Lodge, Caring Hearts Assisted Living, Integrity Hospice, Peter and Holly Daines, and North Logan 6th Ward Relief Society. Condolences may be expressed online at www.allenmortuaries.net .