Ruth Walter

Our mother, grandmother, aunt and friend Ruth Stegmaier Walter passed away peacefully in her sleep on Tuesday, July 17, 2012, of natural causes. The former long-time resident of Greenwood Lake was 82. Ruth was born in Crailsheim, Germany, on Sept. 1, 1929, to Otto Emil Stegmaier and Marta Schlosstein Stegmaier. Ruth’s parents immigrated to the United States in 1929 and settled in the Bronx. Ruth remained in Germany with her maternal grandmother, Marie Laun Schlosstein, while her parents strived to make a new life for the family in the United States. In 1933, when she was only four years old, Ruth emigrated to the U.S. to live with her parents. In 1945, the family left “the City” and moved to “the country,” establishing residence on Oak Street in Greenwood Lake. Ruth adjusted to life in “the country” and made many lifelong friends. During the summers, she and her friends would go canoeing on the lake or go swimming at Chapel Island. In the winter, they’d snow ski at Mount Peter in Warwick, ice skate on the lake, or toboggan down the Water Tower Hill. Ruth was a Drum Majorette and member of the Queens Village Queens Band of Warwick and performed in local town parades. “Ruthie,” as she liked to be called, attended Monroe High School and graduated in 1947. After high school, she commuted to work in New York City. She later met George Robert “Bo” Walter Jr. of Monroe. They married Jan. 27, 1951, at the Lutheran Church in Pine Valley. After honeymooning in Virginia Beach, Va., they took up residence in Monroe. They finally settled into their lifelong home on Elm Street in Greenwood Lake in 1954. Ruth and Bo Walter raised two wonderful children, RuthAnn and Michael. Bo worked as a high voltage lineman for IBEW Union Local 1249. Ruth was a homemaker and raised their two children. Once their children had grown and were in high school, Ruth went back into the work force, working at Sterling Forest Gardens, the IBM Corporation and the Tuxedo Hospital, taking various positions in accounts payable/receivable. After the death of her husband in 2001, Ruth lived in the family home on Elm Street in Greenwood Lake until 2004. She suffered a stroke in 2004 and moved to Bremerton, Wash., to live with her daughter,RuthAnn and son-in-law, Don. Ruth was predeceased by her parents, Otto Emil Stegmaier and Marta (Schlosstein) Stegmaier; her husband, George Robert “Bo” Walter, Jr.; and her son, Michael Otto Walter. She is survived by her daughter, RuthAnn Walter Jassek and her husband Don of Bremerton, Wash.; her grandson Bo Michael Walter of Golden, Colo.; and many nieces and nephews in Monroe, all of whom loved her deeply and will miss her dearly. A celebration of life memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012, at Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, 25 Waterstone Road, Greenwood Lake. Food and fellowship will follow in the church social hall. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Ruth’s honor to Martha & Mary Health and Rehabilitation Center, 19160 Front St. NE, PO Box 127, Poulsbo, WA 98370. Funeral arrangements have been made by Smith, Seaman & Quackenbush, Inc. Funeral Home. For additional information, call 845-782-8185 or visit online at www.ssqfuneralhome.com.