Ruth J. DeGraw

Ruth passed away at age 81 from natural causes at Hillside Manor on April 14, 2014. She was born January 27, 1933 in Fleetville, Pennsylvania to parents Matthew and Anna Klees. She completed high school there and received an AA degree for becoming a medical secretary from Keystone College in Waverly, Pennsylvania. She worked as a secretary in the research division of Merck & Co., Rahway, New Jersey, where she met future husband Joseph DeGraw, a young research chemist in 1956. They married in May 1957 and promptly moved to California where Joe began work at Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park. They resided in Sunnyvale until Joe retired in 1994. Ruth and Joe raised two children, Ronald born in 1960 and Sharon in 1967. In 1980 they purchased a summer home in the Grant Creek area of Missoula and became permanents residents in 1995. Ruth enjoyed quilting, knitting and was also an avid reader. She was very fond of watching the wildlife that roamed their property and taking walks in the wilderness.

She is survived by her husband, two children, son in law Thomas Lally, and four grandchildren Natalia and Joseph S. DeGraw of Missoula and Julian and Genevieve Lally of Iowa City, Iowa, also nephews Fred Yochum of Brielle, New Jersey and David Yochum of Cornelius, North Carolina. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Cremation Society of the Rockies.
Read Ruth DeGraw's Obituary and Guestbook on www.missoulafuneralhomes.com.