RUTH ADAMS: SHE WAS A FOUNTAIN OF POSITIVE ENERGY
By Joe Rossiter – Free Press staff writer
Detroit Free Press, MI
Oct 4 2007
Nonstop energy to go along with an endless supply of creativity were
some of the defining qualities of Ruth Adams.
An exquisite sewer who designed and tailored clothing, including much
of her family’s, she was a dedicated art teacher, sewing instructor
and local entrepreneur.
Mrs. Adams, the mother of two and a former Bloomfield Hills resident,
died of severe anemia Sunday at Sunrise Assisted Living in Grosse
Pointe Woods where she lived with her husband for the last several
years. She was 83.
"She was a fountain of positive energy who knew what she wanted and
went after it," said her daughter, Judy Adams. "In my mind, she was
an early feminist because of her independent thinking and the fact
that she never let anything hold her back."
Born Ruth Merigian in Highland Park to parents who were Armenian
immigrants, she graduated from Highland Park High School in 1942
and began pursuing a career in art and fashion design at several
area vocational schools. Two years later, she married Albert Adams,
whom she had known since childhood.
While raising a family, she taught adult education courses in dress
making and tailoring and started her own sewing school from the
basement of her St. Clair Shores home. As business prospered, she
expanded to an eastside storefront on Morang Street in Detroit. She
even wrote an instructional booklet on tailoring, complete with
diagrams of some of the intricate stitching techniques used in
her work.
At 43, Mrs. Adams enrolled at Wayne State University. She graduated
in 1971 with a degree in art education and home economics and earned
her master’s degree in art education in 1977.
She started teaching art classes in the Eastpointe school district
in 1971 and retired in 1986.
In 2003 she was honored by Wayne State University when one of
her pastel and pencil drawings of the school’s McGregor Memorial
Conference Center, which she created as a student 30 years earlier,
was hung permanently in Room A at the center.
In addition to her husband and daughter, survivors include daughter
Janet Ankers; one brother, and one grandchild.
Funeral services are today at 10 a.m. at St. John’s Armenian Church,
22001 Northwestern Highway. Burial will be in Evergreen Cemetery
in Detroit.