Jean Ruth Connolly
Ruth passed away peacefully in her sleep at the age of 102 on January 3, 2021, surrounded by her immediate family in Duxbury, Vt.
Ruth was born in 1918 in Saskatchewan, Canada, during the Spanish flu pandemic. Her father was a bank manager, and her mother was a schoolteacher. Ruth had two siblings, Helen and Gordon.
Ruth overcame many difficult challenges during her lifetime, starting with her turbulent childhood. After losing everything during the 1929 Depression, her parents divorced and the children were separated, growing up with different relatives. She gained independence, a sense of responsibility and maturity at an early age. Ruth met her future husband, Robert “Bob” Smith, while skiing just before he left for the Navy during World War II. Her adventurous spirit came out when she decided to join the war efforts. She was accepted by the Mechanized Transport Corps to become an ambulance driver in England. Rut