Ruth Fish Payne

Ruth Fish Payne passed away in the early morning hours of August 28, 2025 in Rockledge, Florida at the age of 96. Born in Enfield, New York, on December 24, 1928, Ruth was the eldest child of Harold John Fish and his wife Ruth Cook Fish. The story goes that little Ruthie was actually born on Christmas Day, but because the delivering doctor had been pulled away from a holiday party, he lost track of the correct time and dated the birth certificate for Christmas Eve instead.Born into a rural poor family marked by hardships, Ruth was the first of her family to graduate high school. She worked at the telephone company and the grocery store to help support the household and take care of her four younger siblings. This resourcefulness and tenacity carried through her entire life - as did her refusal to ever wear blue jeans again after she finally "escaped" her farm days. In 1946, attending a wedding at the Dryden Hotel, Ruth met Damon Payne, a serviceman returned from WWII to take care of his widowed mother. Ruth and Damon married on March 13, 1948, just one day after Damon's 25th birthday. Their first two children, daughters Bonnie and Linda, were born in Ithaca, but the family relocated to Florida after a particularly snowy day in March 1956. Settling in Jacksonville, Damon and Ruth added two sons to their family, Richard and Frank. After raising her kids to adulthood, Ruth took up the longstanding ritual of scouring garage sales in her Buick station wagon every Saturday morning. This led to her work at the children's consignment shop Amy's Turn, and the lifelong friendships she made there. The owners, Ann Simmons and Lori Schmidt, soon saw how special she was and began treating her like family. She also began keeping some of her garage sale "finds" to give to her growing group of grandchildren, who lovingly called her "Dram."Ruth remained in Jacksonville for almost a decade after the death of her husband Damon in May 1994. In 2003, she sold her home - the one that she helped purchase with four car tires as a down payment in 1961 - and relocated to DeBary, where she moved into a retirement community. Ruth enjoyed staying active both physically and socially - going on walks, swimming in the pool, bringing salted beets to the community cookouts, organizing group trips to the gambling boat in Port Canaveral and traveling on bus trips with friends and neighbors.Ruth's mind was as sharp as her tongue, and she had an iron will to match them. Quick with a quip, her sense of humor was simultaneously playful, dry, and biting. She was both a loving and imposing matriarch, likely to recall many little details about your life but also a few of your faults. She drank black coffee with an ice cube, peppered her food generously, and always got the right ratio of sugar to vinegar in her cabbage salad. She loved movies starring Sandra Bullock and Colin Farrell, and the singing voices of Anne Murray, the Mills Brothers, Dean Martin, Vince Gill, and Keith Urban.Ruth is survived by her children Bonnie (Daniel) Paul, Linda (Michael) Markley, Richard (Yvette) Payne, and Frank Payne, as well as grandchildren April (Raymond) Claudio, Shannan (Chris) Muse, Laura Markley, Amanda (Robert) Borchardt, Christa Markley, and Kylee (Matt) Oventrop, plus great-grandchildren Lyndsey (Chris) Neel, Rayna Claudio, Raymond Claudio, Aubree Muse, Scarlett Oventrop, Logan Muse, Brody Borchardt, Logan Borchardt, Vincent Oventrop, and Bo Oventrop, and great-great-grandchildren Alexis Neel, Alaina Neel, and Adelyn Neel. She is also survived by her sister Barbara Fort and brother Charles Fish, in addition to cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents Harold and Ruth, her siblings Harold Jr. (Sonny), Marjorie, and Joyce, and her husband Damon.