Naomi Ruth Twining

1923 - 2022

Naomi Ruth Twining

1923 - 2022

Naomi Ruth Twining, activist, author, historian, researcher, and former scuba diver, passed away peacefully on March 31, 2022, at Ebeid Hospice, at the age of 98. She was born in Toledo on June 25, 1923, to Mathias J. and Ruth Brooks Bayer.

She graduated from Rossford High School and Davis Business College. Naomi was the Administrative Assistant for the Engineering Dept. at Dana Spicer for many years, and a member of the UAW.

An eyewitness to some important local history, she and her brother saw the immediate aftermath of the Jack Kennedy murder in Point Place, near their home. Decades later Dr. Martin Luther King visited Toledo, she met him at a reception at the home of Edward Lamb.

Naomi was an active member and officer in Toledo's and Ohio's ACLU. She became the first woman to join Judge Walinski's History Group, then invited other women to attend the meetings. She broke "glass ceilings" before it was even a term. She initiated and oversaw installations of several history markers in Northwest Ohio. She was a member of the area's Unitarian churches and was the first to research a Unitarian couple, Rev. Waitstill and Martha Sharp, who saved children during WWII. Eventually, the Sharps were inducted into Yad Vashem's Wall of the Righteous in Jerusalem.

Naomi is survived by her daughters, Christina Moffat and Laura Crary; grandchildren (who called her NoMe), Laurel Moffat, Noah (Brittney) Crary, and Ian Crary; sister, Kay Hudson; and sister-in-law, Pat Bayer; her special neighbors who are like family, Loretta, Annie, and LuAnn, and many dear friends. She was preceded in death by her parents; stepmother, Dorothy Brossia Bayer Leestma; brother, Bruce Bayer; grandson, Adam Moffat; and son-in-law, James Crary.

Donations in her memory might be considered to the Ohio ACLU, the Delta (Ohio) American Legion Auxiliary, or to the Ruth Fajerman Markowicz Holocaust Resource Center of Greater Toledo.

A celebration of her life will be held this summer. Caring Cremation has assisted the family.