County's oldest resident passes at 106

By: 
Robert Maharry

A Wellsburg woman whose birth predated the ill-fated voyage of the Titanic, World War I and the inventions of both television and radio died peacefully at the Grundy County Memorial Hospital last Wednesday—relinquishing her title as the county’s oldest living citizen and leaving more than a lifetime’s worth of memories to her friends and family in the process.
           
Alice Ruter, 106, epitomized small-town living about as well as anyone could: she was the 11th of 14 children, taught in six different rural one-room schoolhouses in Grundy County, assisted with the operations at her family’s farm and stayed active in the Wellsburg Reformed Church as a committed member and Sunday School instructor for well over half a century. Finally, at 104 years old, she played her first video game—Wii Bowling.
           
“I’ve been a jack of all trades and a master of none,” she told The Grundy Register in a 2016 story.
           
Despite the fact that she never married or had children, family was integral to Ruter’s identity: on the day she passed, she left behind over 100 nieces, nephews, nieces-in-law and descendants, and as the last living offspring of Eike and Trientje Luppen Ruter, she was finally reunited in eternity with her parents and all 13 siblings.
           
“She lived her life with persistence, faith, devotion, zest, and attention to detail,” her great niece Nadine Vanhauen of rural Wellsburg said. “I always described her as a social butterfly since she never knew a stranger and thoroughly enjoyed being with family and friends, visiting and socializing, and communicating through writing notes and letters.”  
 
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