Ruth W. Stocksdale, a homemaker who earlier had worked as a secretary, died Monday at Mercy Ridge of complications from Alzheimer's disease. She was 89.
The daughter of Charles E. Wisner, a machinist, and Elizabeth B. Wisner, a homemaker, Ruth Elizabeth Wisner was born in Baltimore and raised in Hampden.
She was a 1943 graduate of Eastern High School. From 1945 to 1951, Mrs. Stocksdale worked as a secretary at the Maryland Casualty Co., Fidelity & Deposit Co., and in the office of H.C. "Curly" Byrd, then president of the University of Maryland, College Park.
In 1945, she married Alan H. Stocksdale, and the couple later moved to a home on Sussex Road in Wiltondale, where they lived for 50 years.
Mrs. Stocksdale was an active member for 46 years of Woodbrook Baptist Church. She also was a member of the board of the Baptist Home of Maryland.
She enjoyed gardening and was a member and former president of the Garden Club of Wiltondale.
In 2011, she and her husband moved to Mercy Ridge in Timonium.
Services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Mitchell-Wiedefeld Funeral Home, 6500 York Road, Rodgers Forge.
Mrs. Stocksdale is survived by her husband, a retired Baltimore attorney; a son, A. Dean Stocksdale of Hunt Valley; three daughters, Zoeanne S. Denham of Hydes, and Beverly S. Cvach and Karen S. Mann, both of Cockeysville; 11 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.