Ruth Laverne Nuckels, known to friends and family as Ruthie, passed away during the early evening hours of Saturday, June 6th, 2015 in Florence, Alabama with family nearby. Ruthie was born in Covington, Kentucky on April 13th, 1926 and had just celebrated her 89th birthday.

Ruthie met her sweetheart, Clarence Edward (Bud) Nuckels Jr. while in school in Ludlow, Kentucky in 1939 and despite his stint away in the Navy during WWII she waited, working in a chemistry lab toward the war effort, till he returned and they were married during the summer of 1947.With the arrival of their first child Ruthie withdrew from outside work to stay home and support her husband’s efforts while he attended Purdue University and graduated n the early 1950s.

During the 1960s living in Florida, Ruthie was in the unenviable position of serving as both mother and father to her three growing sons while her husband traveled extensively abroad for his job. Coming home regularly to fulfill his wife’s admonishments, “just wait till your father gets home”; he needn’t worry overly as Ruthie had the task well in hand.

The 1970s saw new challenges for Ruthie’s role as the family turned expatriate, now living in West Africa and then the Middle East, following the dictates of her husband’s job. As neither her mother, her past experience, nor even her library of cookbooks contained tips on serving the unfamiliar commodities available at the overseas markets, Ruthie spent a lot of time just trying to make normal of it all.

Returning stateside during the 1980s the couple lived in Connecticut and Georgia till PanAm folded in 1991 which brought a period of semi-retirement in North Carolina and Arkansas that lasted through the 1990s. All toll Ruthie counted some 62 years of marriage and 23 moves, not including the rentals, but what are a few changes here and there amongst such long devoted partners.

Ruthie and Bud finally managed to settle for good in Florence, Alabama in 2003 where they joined their youngest son Todd and his wife Dr. Barbara Frazier with their 3 children, Sam, Christopher and William. In addition, left behind is their middle son Mark,his daughter Anna and her mother Carol. Ruthie’s eldest son Ed preceded her in death in 1993, leaving his daughter Kendra and her mother Nancy and great-grandson Alasdair. Ruthie also leaves sister-in-law Valerie with niece Andrea and nephew Craig.

The remaining family wishes to express their deep thanks to the many doctors in Florence that cared for Ruthie these past 12 years, and to the staff and caregivers of Home Instead that allowed her the dignity to remain in her own surroundings, and finally to the caregivers at Hospice of the Shoals for helping to ease her passing.

A small, intimate family gathering was held at Elkins Funeral Home with a formal ceremony planned at a future date when Ruthie’s cremains are returned to Kentucky for her 24th and final move, to be interred next to her childhood sweetheart, Bud.All that knew Ruthie shall now have to content themselves with the thought of one day seeing her again on the other side.