[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 70 (Wednesday, June 8, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: June 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
THE DEATH OF RUTH CAREY
Mr. SASSER. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to Mrs. Ruth
Carey, a long-time resident of Oak Ridge, TN. Mrs. Carey passed away on
April 22 of this year at the age of 74.
Mrs. Carey was an accomplished photographer, a writer, a patron of
the arts, an active member of her community, and loving wife, mother,
and grandmother. The Oak Ridger published a front page article on the
day of Mrs. Carey's death which, I believe, offers a full and fitting
testimonial to her rich and productive life. I ask unanimous consent
that it be printed in the Record following my remarks.
There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Ruth Carey--Photographer, Writer, Arts Patron, Oak Ridge Booster--Dies
Today
Ruth Carey, resident of Oak Ridge since its earliest years,
photographer, writer and one of the community's most involved
citizens, died at 2:30 this morning at Methodist Medical
Center of Oak Ridge. She was 74.
Mrs. Carey had not been feeling well a week ago but
attended and took pictures of a friend's wedding on Saturday
afternoon. Saturday evening, as her condition worsened, she
was admitted to the hospital and emergency exploratory
surgery was performed Sunday afternoon. She rallied briefly
after the surgery but a serious infection and a heart attack
that occurred sometime during the illness ultimately caused
her death.
Mrs. Carey had been a secretary with the Department of
Energy and its predecessor agencies from 1948 until her
retirement in 1982. She worked first in the original isotopes
division of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission and then later
was secretary to the director of the personnel division.
Mrs. Carey's community roles were many and varied. Most
recently she had served as official photographer and
publicist for the city's 50th Anniversary celebration, which
began in September 1922 and ended Dec. 31 of last year. In
this capacity she attended, photographed and in many
instances wrote reports of virtually all of the anniversary
events. She also wrote a weekly column, ``Reminiscing,'' for
The Oak Ridger during the anniversary period.
As a photographer she served scores of local civic and
cultural organizations, chief among them Oak Ridge Playhouse,
the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association and the Oak Ridge
Community Art Center. She had served as a member of the
original organizing committee for the Art Center.
She also almost daily took pictures of important personal
events--weddings, birthdays, bar and bat mitzvahs, new
babies--for her scores of personal friends and acquaintances.
Equally, she would write poems and song parodies for personal
occasions, often performing them with her husband and other
friends.
Mrs. Carey was born Feb. 15, 1920, in Poland and came to
this country as a babe in arms with her parents, Albert and
Pearl Goodstein, when they immigrated to the United States in
late 1920. They came to Knoxville, where her father was a
grocer for many years.
She met her husband, Milton, by whom she is survived, after
he had come to Knoxville from New York in the 1930s. He
worked first for the Tennessee Valley Authority and then in
1943 joined Ford, Bacon and Davis, early construction
contractors on the Oak Ridge project. Milton soon joined
Union Carbide, first at K-25, the Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion
Plant, in production scheduling and then later at the Y-12
Plant in uranium inventory. He retired in 1974.
Mrs. Carey was an original member of the Beth El Jewish
Congregation. She served as the first president of the Oak
Ridge Hadassah and was also active in the sisterhood since
its inception. She and her husband were active in many
programs and events related to support for Israel, which they
had visited several times.
The Careys lived first in a flattop on Hillside Road and
then later on South Purdue Avenue and most recently at 26
Brookside Drive. They were original residents of these
Briarcliff townhouses and she served as secretary of the
Briarcliff Condominium Homeowners Association since its
inception.
Mrs. Carey's photography began as a hobby in the early
1950s but soon developed virtually into her second
occupation, although the great bulk of her work with her
camera was as a volunteer. She did do free-lance photography
for The Oak Ridger for many years, one of her regular
assignments being to visit local churches on Easter morning
and photograph church goers in their Easter finery. Often as
many as 20 to 30 pictures would appear in subsequent issues
of The Oak Ridger. She also regularly photographed the annual
Jaycee Easter Egg Hunt on Easter afternoon, including this
year's in a heavy downpour.
Others of her regular assignments were pictures for The Oak
Ridger's annual June Bride edition and the annual WATTec
scientific conference held each late February in Knoxville.
Most recently she had been writing a biweekly column,
``Around Our Town,'' for The Oak Ridger.
While employed at the AEC, the Energy Research and
Development Administration and the DOE, she wrote a regularly
published employee publication, ``ORBITS,'' the name derived
from the Oak Ridge Operations Office title. On her retirement
she received a special award of affection and appreciation
from her fellow workers for this publication, which
highlighted not just news of the federal agency workplace,
but also many personal items about the employees there. She
also received several official awards of commendation for her
work with that succession of federal agencies.
``We're going to miss Ruth greatly,'' said Oak Ridger
editor Jim Campbell this morning. ``In the past year she has
helped us in so many ways. She gave a talk on taking pictures
for the newspaper at our Spreading the News seminar. She
worked with businesses, arts groups--anyone who needed help
preserving a moment or an accomplishment in the newspaper.
``She was a delight to work with--professional, caring,
committed to quality. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her
family and friends today.''
Mrs. Carey was working with Ellen Woodside on The Oak
Ridger's annual progress edition shortly before her illness
and some of her work will appear in it. It will be published
next Thursday.
Also, Campbell said The Oak Ridger will be putting together
a special page or pages of Mrs. Carey's photography showing
Oak Ridge from her unique perspective.
In addition to her husband of more than 50 year, she is
survived by a daughter, Ellen Appel, and her husband, Bernie,
of Fort Worth, Texas; two granddaughters, Ann Liebert of
Atlanta and Sharon Goldman, a student at Colorado State
University; and two sisters, Marion Katzman of Cincinnati and
Ida Jervis of Washington, D.C. A brother, Sam Good, well-
known architect of Knoxville, died in the late 1960s. His
widow, Bess Hazelwood, lives in Dothan, Ala.
Also surviving is a cousin, Joseph Goodstein, also a well-
known architect of Knoxville, and his wife, Marion. The
Goodstein family has maintained closest family ties and each
Thanksgiving holds a reunion that attracts more than 100
relatives. Ruth and Milton Carey hosted two of these reunions
here in Oak Ridge.
The funeral will be at 3 p.m. Sunday at Martin Oak Ridge
Funeral Home on Oak Ridge Turnpike. Rabbi Victor Rashkovsky,
of the Beth El Congregation, will officiate. Burial will
follow at the Jewish Cemetery at Oak Ridge Memorial Park.
The family requests that memorials be in the form of
donations to the Jewish Congregation of Oak Ridge, 101 W.
Madison Lane, Oak Ridge, Tenn. 37830; Hadassah, in care of
Eleanor Agron, 102 Wilderness Lane, Oak Ridge, Tenn. 37830;
or the Oak Ridge Playhouse, P.O. Box 5705, Oak Ridge, Tenn
37831.
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