Ruth Taylor Wacker Gantt

Ruth Gantt was born March 5, 1923 on a sheep ranch near Laramie, Wyoming and given the name, Ruth June Mortensen. She was the third child of Emily and Lauritz Mortensen being born 20 months after twins Milly and Merle who were Ruth's sister and brother. Her father, known as 'Mort,' had immigrated to the United States from Denmark in the early 1900's. After being in WWI, he met and married Emily Agnes Carothers. Unfortunately Emily died three days following Ruth's birth. A few months later, Mort moved his young family to Denver, where he became a car salesman for the Nash-Rambler automobile. Mort cared for his family by having helpers, but essentially Mort raised the three children as a single parent. Ruth became self-sufficient at an early age along with her siblings in house cleaning, cooking, and washing for the family. She graduated from South High School, Denver, in 1940 at the age of 17, and received an associate of arts degree from Colorado Womans College in East Denver in 1942. In 1946 she married Les Andrews, who was a student at the University of Denver (DU). World War II began and Les was drafted after their marriage. Basic training took the young couple to the San Francisco area in California, where Ruth worked for the Wells Fargo Bank. After only seven months, her marriage to Les Andrews was tragically cut short due to his accidental death from a ruptured spleen during a football game with his military buddies. Ruth returned to Denver where she discovered through City Park Baptist Church that she could apply for a scholarship to attend William Jewell College, a Christian school in Liberty, Missouri. While at William Jewell she was accepted into sorority Beta Sigma Omicron, and later became chapter president. In the 1960's Beta Sigma Omicron became known as Zeta Tau Alpha on the William Jewell campus. After graduating from William Jewell in June of 1946 with a degree in psychology, Ruth moved back to Denver. True to her adventuresome spirit, she became a stewardess for Continental Airlines in November 1946. She was in the first class of flight attendant trainees that did not have the pre-requisite of also being a registered nurse. As World War II ended, she met and married Norman Taylor in 1947. To this marriage three children were born: Trudy, Tad, and Hal. During her homemaking years, Ruth took cooking and sewing classes at Denver Opportunity School….she loved learning new things. She loved the outdoors and enthusiastically joined in family outings for snow skiing, water skiing, bicycling, sledding, ice-skating, and years of fishing trips to Montana. Whether it was church activities, Campfire Girls, Boy Scouts, ballet lessons, Highlander Boys, or music lessons, Ruth was an involved mother and supporter. Norm and Ruth helped to start a bridge group of six couples in 1955 which continued for over 50 years. After almost thirty years of a wonderful life together, during which Ruth was a help-mate to Norm in his career as an agent for New York Life Insurance Company, Norm was taken in an untimely death in 1977 at the age of 59. Ruth's steadfast friends in church and other organizations provided the strength to recover her up-beat spirit and a kind word for the day. She LOVED to play bridge and formed many friendship over the years among those with whom she played. Ruth was also an active member of P.E.O. for over 50 years, serving as president of this organization, too. She has been a member of the Daughters of the Nile for over 35 years and served as their Queen in 1986-87. Another interesting activity that Ruth enjoyed was started in the late 1970's, when she began a serious study of hand-writing and became a Master Certified Graphoanalyst from a school in Chicago. She later taught courses in graphoanalysis. Ruth enjoyed sharing life, so in 1979 she married Pete Wacker. They enjoyed many travels together, especially a month–long trip through Russia and China and another trip to Australia. Unfortunately, Pete died in 1988. In 1990, she married Bob Gantt and together they shared many travels about the USA in their RV, along with their faithful poodle companion, Jeb. Bob died in 2002, and Ruth's own son, Tad, died suddenly in 2007. Ruth is survived by her children Trudy Taylor Bamford (husband, Greg), son, Hal Taylor, grandsons David Bamford (wife Bryana), and Adam Bamford (wife Tara), great-grandsons Austin, Hunter, and Luke; great-granddaughters Shea and Maya; sister Milly Skeen; half-sister Karen Martin; daughter-in-law Patty Taylor; and numerous nieces and nephews. As already mentioned, she has been preceded in death by all four husbands, her son, Tad, her brother Merle, sister-in law Margaret Mortensen and brother-in-law Bob Skeen. A Visitation for Ruth will be held from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM on Friday, September 21, 2012 and a Funeral Service to follow the next day at 11:00 AM, Saturday, September 22, both at Horan & McConaty Family Chapel, 11150 East Dartmouth Avenue, Aurora, Colorado. Entombment at Fairmount Cemetery, Denver, Colorado. Memorial contributions may be made to Samaritan's Purse, Shriner's Burn Hospital, or Operation Smile. Please share memories and leave condolences for Ruth's family by signing the guestbook.