My mom, Ruth Davie Klessen, died last fall (2015) in her home in Sioux Falls, SD, where she had lived for over 50 years. At age 99, she was the last living member of her family.

Mom was smart and compassionate, well-read, open-minded, and very funny—in a literary sort of way.

I’m working on this site so that family, friends, and fans of vintage can share in all the goodies she left behind. Mom’s “collection” contained not only her stuff, but also the things we kept when her two older sisters died and we cleaned out their houses.

The following is taken from the bio I wrote for her obit:

Ruth Rosalind Davie was born Oct. 18, 1915, to Lillie (Buswell) and Edwin Lorimer Davie. She was the fourth of their five children. Both of her grandfathers were Civil War vets. Their family house on Cleveland Avenue near 18th Street was still outside the city limits at the time.

Ruth attended schools in Sioux Falls and graduated from Washington High, Class of 1933. She loved music, reading, history, and gardening all her life, and she was an avid knitter. Ruth held a variety of jobs in an era when it was uncommon for a woman to be employed outside of home. During WWII, she requisitioned supplies for the Air Base. She was a top-notch proofreader for local printing companies; she set up many procedures to improve efficiency in crop reporting. Ruth retired over 30 years ago from the Department of Agriculture.

Ruth married Thorgel Klessen, whose family had been émigrés from Denmark, on Oct. 10, 1944, at Camp Ritchie, MD. They had one daughter in 1950 and their second in 1956 [me]. The family moved many times, as Thorgel’s military orders took them around the U.S. and to Europe and back. In the 1960s they returned to Sioux Falls.

Ruth was a member of First Presbyterian Church for over 50 years, serving on many committees, as an ordained Elder, and as a committed volunteer in the church library. Ruth and Thorgel had been married over 54 years when he died in 1998.

Her siblings and their spouses are also deceased: William Davie, Dorothy Davie, Marion Serr (Arthur), and Hollis Davie (Ruth). She is survived by her daughters Kathleen Ruth (Robert Black), of Rio Vista, CA, and Rosemary Elizabeth (Dale Nordlie), of Sioux Falls. Nell and Will Nordlie are Ruth’s grandchildren. “Ruthie” had a long and full life and is remembered fondly by nieces and nephews, and by neighbors and friends alike.