Ruth Gilmour, 76, Was Vineyard Haven Native

Ruth (Hancock) Gilmour of Wayland and Menemsha died on Friday, August 13, at the Emerson Hospital in Concord following a short illness. She was 76.

She was born at the Martha's Vineyard Hospital, the daughter of the late Hariph Clayton and Marion (Bodfish) Hancock of Vineyard Haven, and was educated in Tisbury. She graduated from Bates College in Lewiston, Me. She was a resident of Wayland for the past 48 years.

Mrs. Gilmour loved music including playing the piano and singing for her church choir, and various Bible study programs. She loved teaching piano to a number of children including some of her own grandchildren. She worked with her church's cassette ministry for 20 years and was a member of the Gideon Auxiliary. She was a great Vineyard historian and loved working with and helping her grandchildren with traveling and sightseeing and was on her way to the coast of Maine for a short vacation when she became ill.

She is survived by her husband of 55 years, William Emerson Gilmour, of Wayland; her three daughters: Jill Johnstone and her husband, David, of Ashland; Betsy Ramsey and her husband, Bill, of Wayland, and Nancy Quinn and her husband, Kevin, of Northborough, and eight grandchildren. Mrs. Gilmour was the sister of Marjorie Hancock Phillips of Lexington, Va., and Menemsha, and the late Herbert R. Hancock.

Visitations will be today, August 17, from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. at the John C. Bryant Funeral Home, 56 Pemberton Road, Wayland.

Family interment will be held on Wednesday, August 18, in the family lot in Abel's Hill Cemetery, Chilmark.

Donations in Ruth's memory may be sent to the Faith Fund, Gideon International, Middlesex Camp, P. O. Box 201, Marlborough, MA 01752 or to the Handbell Account of the Trinitarian Congregational Church.