Ruth Duff

Ruth Lunt Duff, 93
SOUTH PORTLAND - Ruth Lunt Duff, 93, of South Portland, passed away on Feb. 7, 2015 at Maine Medical Center after a brief hospitalization due to flu and heart complications. She was proud of beating breast cancer for 42 years.
Ruth was born in South Portland, graduated from South Portland High School and Westbrook College, and enjoyed spending childhood summers on Little Sebago Lake with her parents, Helen and Paul Lunt, and her five siblings. In 1945, she married Roderick ("Bud") Duff, after his World War II military service in Belgium and Germany ended. Her husband Bud was involved in civil engineering and the petroleum industry. Together, they spent the next 30 years overseas with their three daughters, Sandy, Barbara, and Nancy, living mostly in Senegal, Morocco, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, and, finally, Belgium.
Ruth and her husband Bud helped organize the first effort to lobby the U. S. government for expatriate absentee voting rights for Americans living abroad--the No Taxation Without Representation Campaign. Ruth was active in the International Women's Club and participated in political, cultural, and service organizations wherever she lived, often holding officer positions and chairing committees.
During her final years abroad in Brussels, Ruth managed a tearoom and coffee shop that offered European antiques, pastries, homemade American-style donuts and light lunches. It served as a home-away-from-home for many expatriate Americans as well as a gathering place for Belgians and members of the international diplomatic community. She also founded an on-site, volunteer-run thrift shop and tearoom, the P-Tea-A Room, at the International School of Brussels, (the school attended by her three daughters), as a fundraising project. After her daughters had graduated, she frequently served as a mentor and guide for school trips and for language/cultural study programs in various countries. One of her greatest passions was sampling the great variety of tearooms, coffee shops and bakeries all over Europe. And America.
In the late 1970s, Ruth returned to her roots in South Portland. She was active in the Women's Literary Union, the YWCA, the First Congregational Church, the Venture Club, her South Portland High School reunions, the Cancer Community Center, mah-jongg and several bridge groups. She never missed a City Council meeting on local access TV and actively supported her favorite local political candidates. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star for 73 years and also a Mayflower descendant through the Brewster-Turner line. During these later years in Maine, she served first as the caregiver for her mother and later for her husband.
Ruth was a crossword puzzle enthusiast, as well as an avid reader and traveler, a frequent art museum visitor and theatergoer, and an enthusiastic birdwatcher. She loved crabmeat rolls, spice gumdrops, chocolate sugar donuts, marzipan, fresh blueberries, and chocolate. Her startlingly blue eyes, joyful and infectious laugh, and warm smile could light up any room.
As her hearing and health began to wane, and she needed to have caregivers herself, Ruth often startled her "helpers" of various nationalities by being able to address them in their native languages, including French and many short phrases from West African dialects and Arabic.
Ruth will always be remembered for her great heart, for making people feel instantly at home, and for cherishing what was special about each and every person she met. She made a difference in the lives of others.
She is survived by her siblings and their spouses, Dick and Peggy Lunt Carmichael, Bev and Dick Lunt, and Ben Lunt; her three daughters and their husbands, Sandy and Jim O'Toole of Darien, Conn., Barbara Duff and John Ferdico of Bowdoinham, Maine, and Nancy and David Drouin of Steep Falls, Maine; six grandchildren, Katie Turner, Sara and Jamie O'Toole, Michael Ferdico, Kyle Jongerden, and Kellie Drouin; as well as six great-grandchildren. She was pre-deceased by her husband, Roderick "Bud" Duff, and by her two older siblings, James Lunt and Betty DuPont.
Visiting hours will be held on June 5 from 11:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. at
Hobbs Funeral Home
, 230 Cottage Rd, South Portland followed by a 2:00 P.M. graveside committal service at Brooklawn Cemetery. On line condolences may be shared at: www.hobbsfuneralhome.com.