FALMOUTH — Ruth Florence Eddy White, 106, died May 13 after a life well-lived. In 2011 she received Falmouth’s Boston Post Cane, an honor granted throughout New England to a town’s oldest living resident.

White was born July 7, 1906, in Dana, Mass., the daughter of Horatio B. Eddy, a farmer, and Ruth A. Holton. It was her father who taught her early in life of the importance of being independent and the necessity of financial responsibility. She schooled herself to run her own investments and managed them enthusiastically throughout her life.

In February of 1935, she married Harrison Gates White, of Springfield, Mass., after which they resided in Springfield. Harrison White, a career Navy man who passed away in 1962, retired in 1946 as a Rear Admiral. White herself enrolled in the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service, or WAVE, branch of the Navy.

Her husband introduced her to the joys of hunting and fishing in Maine, which she greeted with her usual gusto for life, eventually building a camp together in northern Maine where they enjoyed their time out of doors hunting and fishing.  

White was also highly skilled at needlepoint, sewing, painting, gardening and loved poetry, music and acting. In 1973, she moved to Applegate in Falmouth, where she resided until she took up residence at Falmouth By the Sea in 2010.

She was an active communicant and devoted member of the Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Falmouth since 1973. She participated in many church sponsored activities, including Altar Flower Guild, the Kneeler Guild, Office Angels and was chairwoman of Hospitality Committee. She was also a valued member of the Garden Club.

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A funeral mass was held for White at Episcopal Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Foreside Road, Falmouth May 23. White will be interred beside her late husband in the Hillside Park Cemetery in Springfield, Mass., at a later date.

Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Legacy Fund of the Episcopal Church of St. Mary the Virgin, 43 Foreside Road, Falmouth, ME 04105.

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