The Wagner Genealogy and Relation
894 Names and Growing!
Person Page 194
Ruth Agnes Hoffman
F, #194, born April 10, 1918, died April 19, 2006
| References | Adalbertus and Agnes Hoffman Jean Bapista DeMers (The Duke) |
Parents
| Father | Bernard Arthur Ben Hoffman (born 1 January 1889, died 14 February 1927) |
| Mother | Eva Marie DeMers (born 4 January 1890, died 10 November 1954) |
| Pedigree Link |
Ruth Agnes Hoffman
Biography
Ruth Agnes Hoffman was born on 10 April 1918 in Wagoo St., Oshkosh, WI. She died on 19 April 2006.
Ruth Agnes Hoffman had reference number 273. She was christened in Wagoo St., Oshkosh, WI. Eulogy as presented by Phylis Hoffman:
The story of Ruth Hoffman begins in the quiet town of Oshkosh, Wisconsin on April 10, 1918. She was the third child born to Eva and Bernard Hoffman; the second oldest girl. Eventually Ruth would have two sisters and four brothers. There’s an early family photo of the Hoffman siblings taken in about 1925 where Ruth appears to be about seven years old. She’s standing in the background and unlike her sister Eunice who has her arm around her baby brother, or her brother Bernie, who has the largest smile of all, Ruth stands in the background leaning on no one and she’s staring directly into the camera not smiling as if she knows her future life will be very different from the rest of her family. If a casual stranger were to hear the story of Ruth’s life they might find it rather sad: she worked for 30 or more years for J.J. Newberry’s Department Store, and then for about six years with the U.S. Passport office. She lived in Inglewood, CA for most of her life. She never married and never had any children of her own. She died alone in a hospital early on the morning of April 19[SUP:]th[:SUP] from the infirmities of old age. Hmm kinda sounds like a lonely life if you didn’t know my Aunt Ruth.
Aunt Ruth’s life was anything but lonely. For starters let’s talk about her family of six brothers and sisters all of whom went on to marry and have children, lots of children. Ruth had thirty-two nieces and nephews! All but two nephews pretty much resided in the greater Los Angeles area. She would often brag to people, especially when she retired and she was living down in Leisure World, about her large family and they could all see a constant flow of visitors to her condo on Fairfield Lane. What’s more remarkable than the fact that Ruth had so many nieces and nephews (and don’t even ask about great nieces and newphews; just ask her sister-in-law, Margaret Hoffman about how many grandchildren she has and you’ll begin to skim the surface) was her ability to be involved in their lives. Aunt Ruth’s discount at J.J. Newberry’s came in very handy when there were 32 little bodies to clothe or get Christmas presents for. And as some of them got older Aunt Ruth’s discount even extended to wedding bands. Speaking of Christmas presents many of her nieces and nephews can recall the annual Christmas stockings given out by Aunt Ruth at the Hoffman family Christmas party, as many as 32 at one time! And they didn’t just have oranges, apples and nuts. JJ Newberry’s on Hollywood Blvd. became a favorite spot for many of the Hoffman’s around the time of the Hollywood Christmas Parade when Aunt Ruth would open up the closed store to family and friends so that they could have a one of the best seats to view the parade. Birthdays were never forgotten by Aunt Ruth. She never forgot a birthday. Raise your hand if Ruth sent you a birthday card, raise your hand if you received birthday cards regularly from Ruth. One of Ruth’s good friends said, “I never remembered Ruth’s birthday, but she never forgot mine.”
Which brings me to another unique quality about Ruth, organization. It takes organization to remember and get out so many birthday cards. Just for her family alone that would be 48 different dates and cards to get out and when you add her friends and other relatives to this list it would be more than a card a week for every week in the year to get in the mail. I often thought it was too bad her eyes gave out on her just as the internet was beginning to take-off Aunt Ruth would have loved email. But back to organization-I remember visiting her once at Seal Beach and this is when her eyesight had started to really give out and she could tell me exactly where to go to get something, “Could you get my address book it’s in the top drawer in the chest next to the oven under . . . “ I couldn’t even tell you how many places I had to look before I found my keys to come here today. Her skill for organization reaches out to all of us gathered here today. Ruth picked this location we are gathered in today. She also picked the mortuary, the suit she would wear for today and the music she wanted to hear. She even wrote out that she wanted an obituary and that she wanted in the Daily Breeze; she was practical to the end because I thought she would have said the Los Angeles Times but according to the mortician it costs thousands to run an obituary in the Times. The only thing she didn’t do was write her obituary.
Speaking of writing Aunt Ruth was quite a fine writer but I am told she came by that gift naturally, her father Bernard wrote for the Milwaukee Journal. Although not a reporter by trade Aunt Ruth put her writing talents to good use during World War II informing her fellow Bona Fides members of the soldiers of their group who were literally scattered around the globe. She was the internet before the internet even started. Aunt Ruth wrote regularly to every soldier she knew during World War II and in turn would share that information in what can be described as a newsletter called the Merry-Go-Around. In her column know as Stripes and Bars she told people about who was injured, who was getting engaged, who was coming home or on sadder occasions about who had died or about a friend being taken as a prisoner of war.
Friends were another very important aspect of Ruth’s life. The Bona Fides was the Young People’s Club of St. John’s church in Inglewood and Aunt Ruth was very active in her youth with Bona Fides and again when she got older. She often helped to organize reunions of the Bona Fides members, she sent out invitations, handled the RSVPs and after every gathering mailed out a type of Merry-Go-Round which recapped the reunion for those people who could not attend and now those recaps serve as a memory of those gatherings. Aunt Ruth definitely knew the power of the written word for preserving memories.
Tom Brokaw described the people of Aunt Ruth’s generation as [ITAL:]The Greatest Generation[:ITAL]. To me Ruth Hoffman represents a chapter in that history that is often untold and easily forgotten, the story of the women who were left on the home front. I agree with Tom Brokaw, Aunt Ruth and all the people of her generation, both male and female were and are the greatest generation that has ever lived. They survived the great depression, for Ruth and her brothers and sisters the depression hit hard. They were a fatherless band of seven mouths to feed and they lived in a tiny two bedroom house in Inglewood. Grandma Hoffman, Ruth’s mother Eva, slept on the screen porch with the four boys and the girls shared and the other bedroom was occupied by another aunt. This generation helped to get America up and running by making real personal sacrifices for the greater good of society. And just when things were getting back to normal here in the states, they had to confront one of the greatest evils in history. Ruth and many of the women of her generation, didn’t sit at home waiting for the boys to return they were actively involved in getting them back home not by protesting but by literally working their jobs, sending them letters and gifts from home, offering up time and prayers for their safety, keeping the vision alive that the war would end that good does triumph over evil and again by making personal sacrifices.
Ruth Hoffman was no shrinking violet waiting for a husband and children to appear in her life. After all who needed children when they had 32 nieces and nephews. She filled her life with the family she had, with the many friends she went out and made over the years and with the love of God; like that great old Bing Crosby song she counted her blessings. Aunt Ruth was by no means a saint she was very human like the rest of us but as I stand here and as I have been reflecting back on her life I realize that while Aunt Ruth was with us I failed to appreciate the past she gave me and; it became hard to see past the old woman who could no longer walk and was weighed down by so many infirmities that she often found it difficult to remember her blessings anymore. It was hard to see the treasure trove of memories she represented of family gatherings, the treasure of her younger self. Many of us here today are aunts and uncles, can we say we know our nieces and nephews in as much detail as Aunt Ruth knew us? I
Well I hope by my sharing of Ruth Hoffman you have come to remember a vibrant woman whose life was grounded in three things: faith, family and friends. May we who are her nieces and nephews honor her memory by making an effort to reach out to each other, also by respecting the faith that we shared with her, and by building up deep relationships within our own little family units. You can start by sending birthday cards to ALL your nieces and nephews.
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The story of Ruth Hoffman begins in the quiet town of Oshkosh, Wisconsin on April 10, 1918. She was the third child born to Eva and Bernard Hoffman; the second oldest girl. Eventually Ruth would have two sisters and four brothers. There’s an early family photo of the Hoffman siblings taken in about 1925 where Ruth appears to be about seven years old. She’s standing in the background and unlike her sister Eunice who has her arm around her baby brother, or her brother Bernie, who has the largest smile of all, Ruth stands in the background leaning on no one and she’s staring directly into the camera not smiling as if she knows her future life will be very different from the rest of her family. If a casual stranger were to hear the story of Ruth’s life they might find it rather sad: she worked for 30 or more years for J.J. Newberry’s Department Store, and then for about six years with the U.S. Passport office. She lived in Inglewood, CA for most of her life. She never married and never had any children of her own. She died alone in a hospital early on the morning of April 19[SUP:]th[:SUP] from the infirmities of old age. Hmm kinda sounds like a lonely life if you didn’t know my Aunt Ruth.
Aunt Ruth’s life was anything but lonely. For starters let’s talk about her family of six brothers and sisters all of whom went on to marry and have children, lots of children. Ruth had thirty-two nieces and nephews! All but two nephews pretty much resided in the greater Los Angeles area. She would often brag to people, especially when she retired and she was living down in Leisure World, about her large family and they could all see a constant flow of visitors to her condo on Fairfield Lane. What’s more remarkable than the fact that Ruth had so many nieces and nephews (and don’t even ask about great nieces and newphews; just ask her sister-in-law, Margaret Hoffman about how many grandchildren she has and you’ll begin to skim the surface) was her ability to be involved in their lives. Aunt Ruth’s discount at J.J. Newberry’s came in very handy when there were 32 little bodies to clothe or get Christmas presents for. And as some of them got older Aunt Ruth’s discount even extended to wedding bands. Speaking of Christmas presents many of her nieces and nephews can recall the annual Christmas stockings given out by Aunt Ruth at the Hoffman family Christmas party, as many as 32 at one time! And they didn’t just have oranges, apples and nuts. JJ Newberry’s on Hollywood Blvd. became a favorite spot for many of the Hoffman’s around the time of the Hollywood Christmas Parade when Aunt Ruth would open up the closed store to family and friends so that they could have a one of the best seats to view the parade. Birthdays were never forgotten by Aunt Ruth. She never forgot a birthday. Raise your hand if Ruth sent you a birthday card, raise your hand if you received birthday cards regularly from Ruth. One of Ruth’s good friends said, “I never remembered Ruth’s birthday, but she never forgot mine.”
Which brings me to another unique quality about Ruth, organization. It takes organization to remember and get out so many birthday cards. Just for her family alone that would be 48 different dates and cards to get out and when you add her friends and other relatives to this list it would be more than a card a week for every week in the year to get in the mail. I often thought it was too bad her eyes gave out on her just as the internet was beginning to take-off Aunt Ruth would have loved email. But back to organization-I remember visiting her once at Seal Beach and this is when her eyesight had started to really give out and she could tell me exactly where to go to get something, “Could you get my address book it’s in the top drawer in the chest next to the oven under . . . “ I couldn’t even tell you how many places I had to look before I found my keys to come here today. Her skill for organization reaches out to all of us gathered here today. Ruth picked this location we are gathered in today. She also picked the mortuary, the suit she would wear for today and the music she wanted to hear. She even wrote out that she wanted an obituary and that she wanted in the Daily Breeze; she was practical to the end because I thought she would have said the Los Angeles Times but according to the mortician it costs thousands to run an obituary in the Times. The only thing she didn’t do was write her obituary.
Speaking of writing Aunt Ruth was quite a fine writer but I am told she came by that gift naturally, her father Bernard wrote for the Milwaukee Journal. Although not a reporter by trade Aunt Ruth put her writing talents to good use during World War II informing her fellow Bona Fides members of the soldiers of their group who were literally scattered around the globe. She was the internet before the internet even started. Aunt Ruth wrote regularly to every soldier she knew during World War II and in turn would share that information in what can be described as a newsletter called the Merry-Go-Around. In her column know as Stripes and Bars she told people about who was injured, who was getting engaged, who was coming home or on sadder occasions about who had died or about a friend being taken as a prisoner of war.
Friends were another very important aspect of Ruth’s life. The Bona Fides was the Young People’s Club of St. John’s church in Inglewood and Aunt Ruth was very active in her youth with Bona Fides and again when she got older. She often helped to organize reunions of the Bona Fides members, she sent out invitations, handled the RSVPs and after every gathering mailed out a type of Merry-Go-Round which recapped the reunion for those people who could not attend and now those recaps serve as a memory of those gatherings. Aunt Ruth definitely knew the power of the written word for preserving memories.
Tom Brokaw described the people of Aunt Ruth’s generation as [ITAL:]The Greatest Generation[:ITAL]. To me Ruth Hoffman represents a chapter in that history that is often untold and easily forgotten, the story of the women who were left on the home front. I agree with Tom Brokaw, Aunt Ruth and all the people of her generation, both male and female were and are the greatest generation that has ever lived. They survived the great depression, for Ruth and her brothers and sisters the depression hit hard. They were a fatherless band of seven mouths to feed and they lived in a tiny two bedroom house in Inglewood. Grandma Hoffman, Ruth’s mother Eva, slept on the screen porch with the four boys and the girls shared and the other bedroom was occupied by another aunt. This generation helped to get America up and running by making real personal sacrifices for the greater good of society. And just when things were getting back to normal here in the states, they had to confront one of the greatest evils in history. Ruth and many of the women of her generation, didn’t sit at home waiting for the boys to return they were actively involved in getting them back home not by protesting but by literally working their jobs, sending them letters and gifts from home, offering up time and prayers for their safety, keeping the vision alive that the war would end that good does triumph over evil and again by making personal sacrifices.
Ruth Hoffman was no shrinking violet waiting for a husband and children to appear in her life. After all who needed children when they had 32 nieces and nephews. She filled her life with the family she had, with the many friends she went out and made over the years and with the love of God; like that great old Bing Crosby song she counted her blessings. Aunt Ruth was by no means a saint she was very human like the rest of us but as I stand here and as I have been reflecting back on her life I realize that while Aunt Ruth was with us I failed to appreciate the past she gave me and; it became hard to see past the old woman who could no longer walk and was weighed down by so many infirmities that she often found it difficult to remember her blessings anymore. It was hard to see the treasure trove of memories she represented of family gatherings, the treasure of her younger self. Many of us here today are aunts and uncles, can we say we know our nieces and nephews in as much detail as Aunt Ruth knew us? I
Well I hope by my sharing of Ruth Hoffman you have come to remember a vibrant woman whose life was grounded in three things: faith, family and friends. May we who are her nieces and nephews honor her memory by making an effort to reach out to each other, also by respecting the faith that we shared with her, and by building up deep relationships within our own little family units. You can start by sending birthday cards to ALL your nieces and nephews.
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