Obituary of Ruth Louise Potter

Ruth L. Potter, age 103, died Thursday, January 27, 2022, at Crestview Specialty Care in West Branch. Funeral services will be held at 1pm Tuesday, February 1, 2022, at the First Christian Church in Coralville, with burial to follow at Memory Gardens Cemetery in Iowa City. Visitation will be one hour prior to the services at the church. Services can be viewed by family and friends through the livestreaming feature on the Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service website @ www.gayandciha.com at Ruth’s page under obituary. In lieu of flowers memorial donations can be made in her memory to First Christian Church of Coralville. Ruth Louise Olson was born December 27, 1918, near Mechanicsville, Iowa the daughter of Oscar and Mary Ann (McEowen) Olson. She attended country school, Iowa City City High School and she graduated from University High School. Ruth married Elmer L. Potter at the First Christian Church in Iowa City on June 19, 1937. After raising her four sons along side of Elmer, she began working at ACT where she worked for over 15 years before retiring in 1981. She was an active member of the First Christian Church where she enjoyed her membership in the Sara Hart Guild. She also cherished her membership in the East Lucas Club, enjoying many lifelong friendships. After retirement, Ruth and Elmer enjoyed spending summers at their ranch in Colorado as well as traveling to visit family throughout the country. A couple of the highlights of her life was an Alaskan cruise with Elmer, and a trip she and her sister Val took to Sweden, her ancestral home. Ruth also took adventure in searching for wildflowers, fossils and animals in the mountains of Colorado and at home she enjoyed gardening, photography, and crocheting blankets for her family. Her family includes her sons, Jerry Potter (Jane), Daniel Potter (Becky), and Jeff Potter; grandchildren, Debbie Vanderwerf, Lori Palmisano (Jim), Joan Johnson (Rob), John Potter (Yelena), Ben Potter (Deb), Emily Potter, Natalie Dejardin (Joel), Kelland O’Brien, and Kyle Potter (Melanie); great-grandchildren, Riley and Tanner Vanderwerf, Brandon, Tayler, Alyssa and Hailey Palmisano, Andrew, William, Mathew and Grace Johnson, Svetlana Potter, Lucy Potter, Brianna and Brandon Becicka, Michael and Katrina Potter; great-great grandchildren Skyler and Scarlett Palmisano, Gracie Ford, and Kasen Becicka. Ruth was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Elmer; son, Michael; daughters-in-law, Jan and Ginni; brother, Roy Olson; and sisters June O’Brien and Valta Donham. Grandson in-law, Willie Vanderwerf. The family would like to thank Crestview Specialty Care for taking such good care of Ruth over these past several years.