Ruth Mae Fidler, GW #142

Ruth was born 8 January 1898 in Reading, Pa to Morris and Dora (Gamler) Fidler.  Ruth was the sister of Gospel Worker Naomi Fidler and niece to preacher Joshua Fidler.  By 1917 Ruth was in the workforce as a topper for a hosiery mill.  By 1920 she had joined the Gospel Worker Society in Cleveland, Ohio.  Ruth did not stay with the Gospel Workers.  Her sister died there in 1925 and that may have been the reason for her leaving.  By 1927 she is back in Reading with her parents, according to the Reading city directory.  Her whereabouts in 1930 are still a mystery; she does not appear in the Reading city directory for that year.  I can’t find her in the census for that year.  However, by 1935 she appears again in the Reading city directory as a topper.  By 1938 she is married to thrice widowed Thomas Rissmiller who was about the same age as her father.  He had been a tinsmith decades earlier but continued to make a living working with metals in a steel mill.  The marriage was short lived; Thomas died in 1942.  By 1948 Ruth had married again, to Austin K Strouse who was a clerk for the Reading Railroad.  The marriage continued until Ruth’s death on 20 June 1946.  Ruth is buried in Laureldale Cemetery where her parents are buried.