Ruth Ida Baldauf Levi

Ruth Ida Baldauf Levi turned out to be a woman ahead of her time. Born on November 16, 1923 in Henderson, KY to Arthur Newsome Baldauf, a farmer, and Rhedna Mayer Baldauf, a homemaker, she was the third in a family of 4 daughters, Josephine (Lyons), Henrietta (Salm) and Jane, who died far too young. She loved her time on the farm, especially enjoying life near the Ohio river, with an abiding love of the land that is still in the family.
Her degree in Bacteriology from Purdue University placed her in the unique position of being one of the minority of women at the time who graduated in a scientific field. She often said that the most important thing she ever did, aside from giving birth to her children, was in her freshman year as WWII loomed for the U.S., she worked for 72 cents an hour for Alice Withrow in her pioneering work on hydroponics in anticipation of feeding the troops. She proofread Withrow's work about "Nutriculture", published in 1948, and helped pollinate the tomatoes that were the first crop grown. She was also proud of her friendship with the Time and Motion expert and Purdue lecturer, Lillian Gilbreth, who wrote, with her husband, Frank, the book, Cheaper by the Dozen, now made famous by its many iterations on the silver screen.
Her degree lead to her first job in Cincinnati, Ohio for Kroger Foods where she first became aware of the benefits of healthy eating. She admitted that she could have gone into the medical field, but "didn't want to risk killing anyone." Instead she eventually went into the field of gourmet and natural foods.
But first she met Richard Alan Levi of Evansville, IN, across the river from her hometown, a wholesale grocer who eventually joined his family's insurance company; they married in 1950, and raised three children Selma, Henry and Wendy. Along with being a homemaker, she taught Sunday School at the Washington Ave. Temple, stormed the male bastion of the Clearcrest Country Club's governance body to allow women to have an equal say and, starting with her first 100 shares of Wrigley's chewing gum, taught herself to invest in the stock market. (She chewed Wrigley's chewing gum until the end.) All along she maintained a healthy life style, walked a minimum of an hour a day, played golf and tennis and believed in healthy, hearty breakfasts.
With her children in high school and college, she began to teach yoga in her home, building an avid group of attendees, years before it became a wellness staple. Ruth then opened her Baldauf Farms store, with, Richard, by then retired. The unique combination of natural and gourmet foods plus wine was a hit. This was at least 10 years or more ahead of the natural food trend and it was so successful she began to offer catering as well. Proud of her knowledge of wines, she took a wine tasting class in Napa Valley with a room full of male wine enthusiasts and beat them all by discerning the only non-Chardonnay among 17 bottles.
Northern California was not the only business related destination for Ruth and Richard. They took trips to Switzerland, Italy, France focusing on gourmet foods, especially wine and cheese. They also traveled with their children to Spain, Belgium, England, Jamaica, Canada, New Zealand, Iceland and Peru.
She and Richard finally fully retired in 1990 and moved from Evansville to Blowing Rock, N.C. where they could hike in the mountains to their hearts content, well into their 70's and late 80's. While in the mountains Ruth wrote articles for the local paper about food, gladly entertained their children's growing families and made a whole new set of friends. They even took a break from their beloved mountains to go zip lining in Costa Rica. When their advanced ages finally caught up with them, they moved to Chicago in 2013 to live with their youngest daughter, Wendy Lienhart, and her family. Ruth passed away there on December 16, 2024.
Initially Ruth never realized how different her vision was from others. For example, as a child, she couldn't see the stars in the sky and just assumed others couldn't either. It was only in middle age that she was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa. After the fact she believed that her keen sense of taste (and smell) were the trade offs for this rare degenerative eye disease. Her love of reading went at least undeterred with the advent of audio books. She became almost completely blind after Richard died in 2017, but she never gave up hope for a cure so she could see her children's, grandchildren and great grandchildren's faces.
Survivors include a daughter, Selma Levi, her son, Adam Klein, and family of Baltimore, MD, the children of her son, Henry Levi who died in 2011, his son, Brett Levi and family of New York City and his daughter, Marisa Levi and family of Briarcliff Manor, NY and the family of her younger daughter, Wendy Levi Lienhart who died in 2020, her husband, Parker Lienhart of Willowbrook, IL, who was instrumental in guiding Ruth's care over the last 4 years, son, Banistre of Chicago, IL, son, Cooper Lienhart and his family of San Luis Obispo, CA and daughter, Peyton Lienhart of Providence, RI. Ruth also had 5 great grandchildren.
A private burial took place at Mt. Pigash Cemetery in Henderson, KY
Donations may be made to the Foundation Fighting Blindness.
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