Ruth A. White, 90, Social Security employee

Ruth A. White, a longtime employee of the Social Security Administration, died of pneumonia Nov. 23 at Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville, where she had lived since 1988. The former Columbia resident was 90.

Born Ruth Andrews in Grafton, W.Va., she moved as a child to Buckhannon, W.Va., where she graduated from high school and earned her bachelor's degree from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1936.

She moved that year to Louisville, Ky., and married Charles S. White. They divorced in 1945.

Mrs. White began her 37-year career with Social Security in 1943, working at several offices in Kentucky before being named assistant district manager in Detroit in 1953. She moved to Baltimore in 1955, and in the late 1960s was among the first 500 residents of Columbia, where she lived for many years.

Throughout her career, she specialized in assisting the mentally disabled and patients in nursing homes. She represented the Social Security Administration at conferences with federal agencies. Her work with federal legislation on mental retardation, passed in 1967, earned her an invitation from President Lyndon B. Johnson to attend its signing ceremony at the White House. She also worked on the task force which resulted in the creation of the Nursing Home Bill of Rights.

Upon her retirement in 1980, Mrs. White volunteered with the Red Cross at its Woodlawn blood drives, and as editor of the Social Security Alumni Association newsletter for four years. She enjoyed dancing and playing shuffleboard.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Dec. 11 at Charlestown's Our Lady of Angels Chapel, 711 Maiden Choice Lane.

She is survived by her daughter, Andrea Storey of Silver Spring; a sister, Shirley Perry, and a brother, Richard Baird Andrews, both of Buckhannon; two granddaughters; and three great-grandsons.