Pamela Ruzicka

Stonington - Pamela (Barnard) Ruzicka, 66, widow of Jeffrey F. Ruzicka, died on Friday, Nov. 5, 2010, of cancer, in her home in Stonington, where she had been in hospice care and attended by family members.

Pamela was born in Washington, D.C., in 1944, the son of John Lawrence Barnard and Diana Kissel Barnard. After attending school in Antwerp, Belgium, where her father was U.S. Consul General, and The Madeira School in McLean, Va., she graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 1966.

In 1968 she married Jeffrey Ruzicka in Stonington.

Pamela's interests and friends were international, reflecting her father's career in the foreign service and her husband's career as an international banker in Latin America and England. She lived for many years in London and was fluent in French and Spanish.

She was devoted to her family, and they to her. She leaves behind her daughters, Alexa Pearson and Christina Ruzicka; her son-in-law, Dan Pearson; her sisters, Daphne Davis and Sylvia Brown; and, joy of Pamela's past four and half years, her granddaughter, Isla Pearson.

Her character and her life were marked by elegance, intelligence, decency, humor (occasionally of the banana peel variety), love of reading, and quiet dignity.

When she learned of her fatal illness and of its virulence, she assessed her situation clearly and directly. She looked forward to being once again next to her husband Jeffrey, who died of cancer in June 2010, and who is, as Pamela will be, buried in Stonington Cemetery.

There will be a private family burial service.

Donations in Pamela's memory may be made to Hospice Southeastern Connecticut, 227 Dunham St., Norwich CT 06360 or Stonington Cemetery Association, 345 North Main St., Stonington CT 06378.

Dinoto Funeral Home, 17 Pearl St., Mystic, has charge of arrangements.