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Tribute to Ruth and in depth write-up about Ruth by Hollis Lenderking (posted 3/9/2016)
Note from her longtime friend, John Medinger (3/5/2016):
“I just learned that Ruth Anderson died last Friday, Feb. 26. She was 86 and had suffered from Alzheimers the past few years. Her husband John died just two weeks earlier.
Ruth was a real pioneer, took up running in her mid-40s and won all sorts of age group awards in the late 70s and 80s. She finished Western States in 1983 and 1986. When she finished in 1983 at age 53 she was at that time the oldest woman to have ever completed the race. (Helen Klein finished in 1984 at age 61). As she got older she had increasing difficulty running trails and fell a lot. But she raced until she was in her 70s; her last ultra was the now-defunct Jim Skophammer 12-hr at age 72. She was very active in USATF and, of course, has a race named in her honor in San Francisco.
Ruth was a chemist by training, worked much of her career at Lawrence Livermore Labs. She is survived by a daughter in Ontario, Oregon.”