Ruth Shoemaker

1922 - 2025

Ruth Goucher Shoemaker, 102, died peacefully on June 26, 2025, at the home she shared with her daughter Peggy Taylor in Fuquay-Varina, NC.

Ruth was born on September 20, 1922, to Edward M. Goucher and Lillian Davis Goucher, and was raised in Toronto, OH, the oldest of their four children. She graduated from Toronto High School and the Ohio State University (BA, 1944, Bacteriology). She did graduate work in psychology while working at Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh, PA.

In 1947, she married George G. Shoemaker, Jr. of Pittsburgh, a marriage that lasted until his death in 1988. They raised their three children in Longmeadow, MA. From the early 1970s to the late 1980s, Ruth worked for DeBell and Richardson/Springborn Laboratories as a librarian and editor for one of their chemical industry publications.

At 75 years of age, she moved from Longmeadow to Louisville, CO, to live with daughter Peggy and her two small children. At 91, she moved to Cambridge Village of Apex, NC, (with ten photo albums documenting her life and the computer where she did Google searches, read the NY Times, and played bridge), and at 100, she moved to Fuquay-Varina, NC.

Ruth was an accomplished knitter, making sweaters for all in the family while in Massachusetts and Colorado. After the move to North Carolina, she knitted baby blankets and baby hats for charity, afghans for her grandchildren, and blankets for her great-grandchildren, including significant work on the one finished this spring.

In her 70s, she reconnected with three friends from Toronto. They had annual reunions: first, at each others' homes and then on ElderHostel trips. Two were widowed after the trips started, and all three friends predeceased Ruth. She lost many other friends, of course, but particularly missed her best friend from Longmeadow, Shirley Lanctot.

Ruth was also predeceased by her three siblings William B. Goucher, Hannah Goucher Connor, and Virginia Goucher Lehman; her sister-in-law Mary Lou Shoemaker Hockensmith; her brothers-in-law Roger L. Connor, Herbert M. Lehman, and Franklin C. Hockensmith, Jr.; and nephews Larry Connor, Danny Connor, and F. C. Hockensmith, III.

She is survived by her children Nancy E. Shoemaker (Raleigh, NC), David G. Shoemaker (Chapel Hill, NC), and Peggy Shoemaker Taylor (Lafayette, CO); Nancy's husband Stephen Davis and David's wife Catherine Barger Shoemaker; grandchildren C. Tyler Shoemaker (Tara Fusco), Meredith Lillian Day (Chris), Amanda Taylor, and Thomas Taylor; great-grandchildren Stellan and Archer Day and Llewyn Shoemaker; and several much-loved nieces and nephews.

A celebration of her life will be scheduled at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations are suggested to WCPE (theclassicalstation.org), your NPR or PBS affiliate, Transitions Life Care or your local hospice, or a charity of your choice.