Ruth Eloise Priest Suter

EASTON - On March 27, 2017, Ruth Eloise Ziehm Priest Suter, 96, died at Coastal Hospice in Salisbury, as the result of injuries suffered in a fall outside of her Easton apartment building on March 9.
She was the beloved wife of the late Walter Hart Suter Jr.; devoted mother of Gordon Webb Priest Jr. (Elizabeth) of Baltimore; Jeffrey Todd Priest, of Towson; Patrick Campbell Priest, of Ocean Pines; step-mother of Barbara Suter Russell (Charles), of Fredericksburg, VA; Johanne Suter Hutson (Thomas), of Ocean City and Ft. Myers, FL; grandmother of Whitney, Blair, Alexander, Anastasia, and Emma Priest; and Meghan Hester (Carl); step-grandmother of Charles Russell Jr. (Ivonne); Kimberly Kimball (Steven); Jason Coale; and is also survived by seven great grandchildren and step-great grandchildren.
Born in Baltimore on Feb. 5, 1921, she was the daughter of Harry W. Ziehm, who had emigrated from northern Germany at a young age and worked for many years at the C&P Telephone Company; and Eloise C. Smith, a homemaker whose family roots were deep in Somerset County. She grew up in the Forest Park neighborhood of west Baltimore, and after graduating from high school there and working for several years, in 1946, she married a fellow Forest Park native and returning Pacific-theatre Navy World War II veteran, Gordon Webb Priest.
In 1951, they moved to Hagerstown, where they raised their three sons until returning to Baltimore in 1964. At the time of her husband's retirement, due to illness in 1967, he was vice president and general sales manager of a wine and liquor distributing firm.
After his death in 1968, she remained in the Elkridge Estates apartment community in the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore. In 1976, she married Mr. Suter, who had been two classes ahead of her at Forest Park High School, and was also a WW II Navy veteran. An engineer, he had a long tenure at Westinghouse Electric Company, before moving to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the last decade of his career.
By the time they moved to the Martingham community of St. Michaels in 1985, she was the longest-tenured resident in the history of Elkridge Estates, and its ex officio "mayor", a record and status she nearly duplicated at Martingham, from which she moved only in 2015, five years after her husband's death in 2010.
A black-belt extrovert who forged lasting acquaintances from every walk of life, Ruth had a circle of loyal followers from each geographical phase of her journey: Forest Park, Hagerstown, Roland Park, St. Michaels, and her cherished sand and surf of Ocean City. She was an adroit raconteur of the foibles and misadventures of yesteryear as well as yesterday, and all were drawn to her joie de vivre and gently sardonic wit. Until the day of her tragic accident, she had been as sharp of mind as one in her physical prime, and remained fiercely independent, having driven her car to meet friends for lunch and attend a church meeting.
Ruth played golf until a few years ago, and continued with her weekly contract bridge group, reading of contemporary fiction on Kindle, playing inter-active mind games like Words with Friends, and keeping up with pals on Facebook. She was quite active in the spiritual and organizational life of Christ Church, serving on various committees, and was a member of the Women's Club of St. Michaels. She energetically pursued various artistic endeavors, including long-time participation in the Bayside Quilters of Easton and the Bay Hundred Bee of St. Michaels, and a prolific creation of beautiful cross-stitching and rug-hooking pieces.
Family and friends are welcome at a memorial service at Christ Episcopal Church, 301 S. Talbot St., St. Michaels, MD 21663, at 2 p.m. on Monday, April 3. A basket will be provided near the entrance for the deposit of notes of condolence and remembrance.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial contribution to the church, or to the Worcester County Humane Society, 12330 Eagle's Nest Road, Berlin, MD 21811.



This obituary was originally published in The Star Democrat.