Ruth Elizabeth Watkins

Ruth Elizabeth Watkins, (nee, Weiss)

Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, on September 24, 1916, passed away peacefully on March 25, 2026, in Cincinnati, Ohio, surrounded by family. She was exactly 109 and a half years young. Ruth was preceded in death by her adoring husband, Colonel Harry C. Watkins USAF (Ret), her former husband, W. Cecil Parks Jr., and her brother Kenneth Weiss, who also passed away on March 25, 2011.

Ruth is survived by her 3 children, David, Christine, and Tim Parks, her granddaughters, Brette Taylor and Summer Lightner, her great-grandchild, Bree Lightner, and her niece & nephew, Ken and Sally Weiss.

If you knew Ruth, you knew she was extraordinary! She graduated from Withrow HS with straight A’s, then attended Littleford-Nelson Business College, where her parents had attended and met. She was a treasured bookkeeper for decades, while raising her 3 children, and later in life passed the real estate exam in Atlanta, GA, and knocked that career out of the ballpark as well. Ruth was smart, fun, inventive, talented, strong, loving, and so very generous! She loved her church, St. Paul Community United Methodist, in Madeira. Ruth also found time to tutor adult students in Algebra and read to the blind.

In her 90’s she traversed the Purple People Bridge, threw out the first pitch at a Red’s Game, cruised around town on the back of 2 different Harleys, road the giant downtown Ferris Wheel (with a news crew in tow) and bantered with the emcee while telling a humorous story on the Princess Cruise Line, to a packed audience of 3,500!

In her Twin Lakes Community, she was loved by everyone, famous for her expressive sing-alongs and an inspiration to all!

The service and burial will be held on Thursday, April 9, 2026, at the Arlington Memorial Gardens Funeral Home, 2155 Compton Road, 45231 (follow the blue line upon entering the memorial park).

Suggestions in place of flowers: The Alzheimer’s Association https://www.alz.org/, UNICEF https://www.unicefusa.org/, or The Salvation Army https://give.salvationarmyusa.org/.