[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.

                          ____________________