Ruth H. Peabody, the widow of the former dean of the Episcopal cathedral, died in her sleep of Alzheimer's disease complications Feb. 23 at Copper Ridge in Sykesville. The former Guilford resident was 91.

Born Ruth Helen Junker in Emery, S.D., she earned a bachelor's degree at Smith College.

She was married for 61 years to the Very Rev. John N. Peabody, the former rector and first dean of the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation in Baltimore. Dean Peabody died in 2002.

"She was very devoted to her family, ministry, interfaith and ecumenical relations, civil rights, peace and justice, environmentalism, and assisting refugees from Southeast Asia," said her son, Bradford C. Peabody, an attorney who lives in Baltimore.

The Peabodys traveled with interfaith groups on two study tours of the Middle East sponsored by Baltimore's Jewish community, her son said.

For 30 years, she spent her summers at a family camp in the Adirondack Mountains at Hawkeye, N.Y.

Services are private.

In addition to her son, survivors include two other sons, John N. Peabody Jr. of Westminster and Dr. Jeffrey T. Peabody of San Diego; and a grandson.