Ruth Martin Fitton

She will be interred beside her husband in Maplewood Cemetery and memorialized with a Mass at Mary Mother of God Catholic Church at a time still to be determined.

Ruth Martin Fitton passed away on Tuesday, March 31 (2020) at the age 99. 

She was preceded in death by her husband, David Edwards Fitton Jr., and survived by her children, David E. Fitton III and his wife Jeanette, of Harrison, Marrin Ruth Sampson and husband Bill, of Longmont, Colorado, and Martin Fitton, of Harrison; grandchildren, Korbin D. Conrad, of Virginia City, Nevada, Hailey Jones, of Springdale, Natalie Blake of San Diego, California, and Adrian Menzel, of Sumas, Washington; three great-grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews and their families.

Ruth was born Aug. 16, 1920, in Fordyce, to Paul Benjamin Martin and Marrin Ruth Lewis Martin. Her family moved to Harrison in 1933, when she was 13. Ruth was active as a color guard for the high school band and she taught dance after graduation. She attended the University of Arkansas and was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. She was the Sweetheart of PIKA at the U of A and subsequently voted National Sweetheart of PIKA in 1943.

In June of 1944, she married her high school sweetheart, David E. Fitton Jr. who was a West Point graduate and was instated into the US Air Force (then the Army Air Corps) as a career officer. His military service took Ruth and their family of three children all over the world, including a tour in the Philippines and in Canada. During their time in the service, she was active in the Officers’ Wives Club, as a Gray Lady hospital volunteer, and was also a Den Mother for the Boy Scouts.

Throughout her life Ruth enjoyed her family, reading, watching sports, playing bridge and golf.

She will be interred beside her husband in Maplewood Cemetery and memorialized with a Mass at Mary Mother of God Catholic Church at a time still to be determined.