1933 – 2022
Mrs. Helen Ruth ‘Ruthie’ McLean (nee Johnston) passed away on Sunday, October 30, 2022 at the age of 89 years.
Ruth was born on April 22, 1933 in Didsbury, Alberta. Ruthie spent her childhood on the family farm at Cremona, where she enjoyed riding horseback, playing baseball, drowning gophers and hunting magpies. Her all-time favorite pastime was working with her dad, Glen Johnston. While Ruthie never really liked school much, she loved riding there and back on horseback every day. She attended school in Cremona, Elmwood, Atkins, and Banner. By Grade Nine, she decided she had learned as much as she could in the classroom and moved on, working for various neighbors providing childcare, working as a farm hand, and often talked about the summer she spent working in Banff, where she would ride her horse home every weekend. She was a hard and determined worker with a good attitude, and so, was well sought after.
She loved her mom and dad dearly and visited them daily when they lived in Didsbury. Her siblings were so important to her, and she felt the loss of each of them deeply. Ruthie had strong opinions about “nothing good coming from east of Highway #2,” but when she met Jerry McLean at a dance, he was able to change her mind. They married in August of 1955 and spent sixty-six years together. They lived on their acreage in Didsbury, both working hard and saving until they were able to buy a Dairy Farm at Dovercourt in 1975. They were able to work side by side on the farm for thirty years, before retiring to Eckville, where they lived together until she lost the love of her life in December 2021.
Ruthie moved into The Hamlets in Red Deer, where she lived until her passing. While in Didsbury, Ruthie and Jerry had four children, Linda, Laurie, Glen, and Geraldine. Ruthie loved being a mom, and their home was always full of other people’s children as well. All the nieces, nephews and neighbor kids remember fond times staying at Auntie Ruthie’s. She was a fun mom, a strict disciplinarian, fiercely protective and made the most incredible cinnamon buns and bread, as well as her famous Auntie Ruthie hamburger! She could make a meal from nothing, no matter how many people showed up.
Ruthie loved to laugh and while she was shy by nature, she was 100% authentic, all the time. As a result, she made many beautiful friends and every one of them became lifelong friends. She said once that the most important lessons she had learned in life were, to be honest, work hard and to try to be a good friend and neighbor. She would get out after a snowstorm, get the tractor going, clean out her own lane and then go clean out all the neighbors’ driveways as well. She loved driving, camping, and fishing, horses and dogs, weekly card parties, coffee times with friends, and bickering with Jerry. For a time, Ruthie enjoyed floor curling at the Friendship Centre and almost daily golf games. Ruthie loved quadding and her grandchildren and great grandchildren have all had the privilege of riding with her out at the family camping quarter. The luckier ones were rarely given the opportunity of driving her quad, but with strict instructions that there were to be no shenanigans!
She will be lovingly remembered by her daughter, Linda (Les) Herron, her daughter, Laurie McLean, her son, Glen McLean and her daughter, Geraldine (Kelly) Klein, as well and her grandchildren, Chris (Julie) Kroetsch, Marianne Kroetsch, Tiffany (Derek) Smith, Micheal (Cathy) Kroetsch, Jeff (Stephanie) Herron, Michelle (Trevor) Rygus, Matt Herron and Chantel Savage, Josh McLean, Cody (Luiza) McLean, and Riley McLean. She was blessed with great grandchildren who she adored and will miss her deeply, Lily Cryderman, Kelsy, Zoe and Travis Tudor, Kaitlin, Kris and Isaac Cullen, Mackenzie, Emma and Haylee Kroetsch, Harley, Wade, and Steve Smith, Elizabeth, Lily and Casey Herron, Cooper, Nora and Theo Rygus, and Logan McLean. She will also be sadly missed by her sister-in-law, Arlene Johnston, her many nieces and nephews and forever friends, Isabelle Rigsby, Jack Camps, Shirley Hamilton, Alice Klassen, Delores McKnight, Gail Rathwell and Dorothy Bott.
Ruthie was predeceased by her parents, Glen and Lillian Johnston, her siblings, Reg (Ruth) Johnston, Jean McLeod, Betty Thomas, Dennis Johnston, a daughter-in-law, Sandra McLean, and one granddaughter, Charlene Cullen. A Celebration of Life in Ruth’s honor will be held at the Alliance Community Church, 4404 – 47 Avenue, Sylvan Lake, Alberta on Friday, November 4, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. Condolences, memories and photos may be shared and viewed at www.heartlandfuneralservices.com. Arrangements in care of: Heartland Funeral Services Ltd., 4415 – 49 Street, Innisfail, Alberta. Phone: 403.227.0006
