Ruth K. Gore, a homemaker and an original Rodgers Forge resident who enjoyed gardening and bird watching, died Saturday of respiratory failure at the Pickersgill retirement community in West Towson. She was 100.
"Up until the very end, she still had her wits about her. She was one smart lady," said Ellen Moats, a Timonium writer and church historian for Ascension Lutheran Church in Towson, where Mrs. Gore was a member for 70 years.
The daughter of Clarence King, owner of King Brothers Printing Co., and Emily King, a homemaker, Ruth Eleanor King was born on East Biddle Street and later moved to Bonner Road in Northwest Baltimore.
After graduating in 1933 from Forest Park High School, Mrs. Gore volunteered in the catalog department of the Enoch Pratt Free Library on Cathedral Street.
This experience led to her first job in 1934 as a secretary at Maryland Casualty. She worked there for two years until her marriage to Jesse M. Gore, owner of the Gore Fruit Co., which was located at the old Pennsylvania Railroad's fruit terminal in Baltimore's Mount Vernon Yards.
The couple moved in 1939 to a home at 221 Murdock Road in Rodgers Forge, where developer James S. Keelty Sr. began building rowhouses in the early 1930s.
Mrs. Gore lived in her Murdock Road home for the next 72 years until moving to Pickersgill in 2010, said her daughter, Karen G. Kyle of Sykesville.
"It was an end-of-group home, and it had a club basement, two pine corner cupboards in the dining room that were painted white and a fireplace. That's how we kept warm when I was a little girl growing up there," said Mrs. Kyle. "Also, those were the days when the streets in Rodgers Forge were two-way."
In a church profile, Mrs. Gore told Ms. Moats that when she and her husband moved to Rodgers Forge, her family "thought this was the other end of the world."
After moving to Rodgers Forge, Mrs. Gore joined Ascension Lutheran Church.
"We first met at church in 2007. I write for the church newsletter and I had written a piece about the Book of Ruth," said Ms. Moats. "So I decided that we needed to write a story about a church member who was named Ruth, and I went to the directory and there were five Ruths listed. She was at the top of the list."
Mrs. Gore explained to Ms. Moats in the parishioner profile how she came to join Ascension.
"Some of my neighbors were joining this new church. I had grown up Methodist and Presbyterian, but I wanted a church that was close by for my children," said Mrs. Gore. "So, not long after the church was chartered, I joined Ascension."
Mrs. Gore was active in many areas of the church. She had served as a member of the worship and music committee, the organ selection committee, and the gifts and memorial committee, but it was the Altar Guild that was "especially meaningful to her," her daughter said. "The church remained an important and meaningful part of her life until the end."
"She lived her whole life by getting out and doing for others. Helping and supporting people was very important to her," said Mrs. Kyle. "She was very happy being a doer."
She also was active with the Girl Scouts after beginning as a Brownie leader. She served as president of the Central Maryland Girl Scout Council from 1963 to 1968.
Mrs. Gore was a longtime member of the Women's Club of Towson, where she had served as president.
She enjoyed gardening. "She had a beautiful garden at her Rodgers Forge home," her daughter said.
Mrs. Gore was also an avid bird watcher and a member of the Audubon Society.
She and her husband liked visiting their Ocean City condominium and traveling. They went to Alaska, where they flew over a glacier in a helicopter and went whale watching. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a trip to Hawaii. After her husband died in 1994, Mrs. Gore traveled to Europe several times with her church.
About 15 years ago, Mrs. Gore went blind, which she took in stride.
"She never complained about her blindness. She just lived with it," her daughter said.
"She listened to books on tape, and it wasn't light fiction. She was listening to biographies and autobiographies," said Ms. Moats. "She kept up on current events by listening to WYPR. She listened to the radio when she wasn't listening to her books on tape."
Ms. Moats would oftentimes read her articles from The Baltimore Sun. She also kept up with the Orioles by radio, her daughter said.
Mrs. Gore, who was a highly organized and orderly person, even planned her own funeral.
"She picked the time and day and wanted it on a Saturday afternoon so people could fly in and fly out and not miss work," said Mrs. Kyle. "She was a person who had a great, long run and a good life. She was a cheerful and happy person."
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Aug. 15 at her church, 7601 York Road, Towson.
In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Gore is survived by her son, King W. Gore of Gainesville, Ga.; five grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and a great-great-granddaughter. Another son, Richard Gore, died in 1996.