Ruth E. Bell Was Active in Life of Community

Ruth Elizabeth Reese Bell died peacefully on the morning of Monday, August 30, at the Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Oak Bluffs after a long, full and gracious life. She was 89.

Mrs. Bell was born at home in the coal mining village of Eckley, Pa., on June 9, 1915, the third child of the general store proprietor Evan C. Reese and his wife, Daisy Mae Young Reese. (The home and village of her birth was the setting for the 1969 Paramount Pictures film The Molly McGuires, and is now the Eckley Miners' Village living history center of the Pennsylvania State Anthracite Museum.)

When she was 14 years old, her father died suddenly and the family moved to Hazleton, Pa., where she subsequently graduated from Hazleton High School. She then joined her older sister, Kathryn, at Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pa., and was graduated with a bachelor of science degree in chemistry in 1936. While at Cedar Crest, she was actively involved in campus organizations including the French club, Greek theatre, choir and glee club, the athletic association and the Young Women's Christian Association.

Throughout her early years, she had participated extensively in the life of her Methodist church and the youth ministry of the Epworth League. She was a delegate to an Epworth League national conference at Estes Park, Colo., while she was still in school. Upon graduating from college, she became secretary to the senior pastor of her home church, Allentown's Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church.

While attending an Epworth League summer institute in the late 1930s, she met a young theological seminarian and student Methodist licensed local pastor, Richard D. Bell, of Bethlehem, Pa. Following his ministerial ordination, they were married in her home church by her senior pastor-employer (and her husband's subsequent district superintendent), Dr. Leon T. More, on June 29, 1940. Mrs. Bell and her husband then began the series of his itinerant clergy and church appointments, which were to characterize and enrich their life and ministry together for nearly 60 years.

They served pastoral charges in the Methodist Church's Philadelphia Conference at Bensalem, Mauch Chunk (now Jim Thorpe), Elmwood, Oxford, Bustleton and Bywood-Upper Darby, all in eastern Pennsylvania, and the summer youth institutes of the Pocono Plateau Christian Association. During this shared ministry their parsonage life included the arrival of four children -- Philip, Charles, Stephen and Lois Elaine (Mayhew).

In 1957 the Bell family was introduced to Martha's Vineyard, spending a part of their summer vacationing in the Oak Bluffs Camp Ground cottage of a church member. In 1958 they bought a gingerbread cottage from the family of the original builder at 33 Trinity Park, known ever since as The Bell Buoy. When the Rev. and Mrs. Bell retired from active ministry in the Philadelphia Conference, this summer home then became their year-round residence, and the central base of the scattered extended family's connection with one another. She particularly enjoyed entertaining in her own home, after years of parsonage living.

Mrs. Bell was an especially conscientious correspondent, remembering the birthdays, anniversaries and special celebrations of her four children, 18 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and numerous other family members and dear friends with whom she kept in regular contact through cards, notes and letters over many years.

Mrs. Bell and her husband enjoyed participating in a wide range of the Island's community and religious activities, particularly the neighborhood convention, for which she served a term as president. She was very active in the United Methodist Women, with a special concern for missions and missionaries at home and throughout the world. She could be counted on to be involved in Bible and special study groups of the Trinity United Methodist Church, and the seasonal offerings of the Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Association. She very much enjoyed serving as a long-term regular choir member in both organizations.

Mrs. Bell once again adapted to the role of pastor's spouse, encourager and supporter when, in his retirement, her husband was called to serve as the pastor of Oak Bluffs's Trinity United Methodist Church, just steps from their home. During this period of several years, the Bells hosted several ecumenical groups of Vineyarders in overseas travel with Educational Opportunities Inc., on many journeys to the Holy Lands of Israel, Jordan and Egypt and to Scandinavia.

Mrs. Bell was a talented and accomplished homemaker and craftswoman, with notable skills in cooking, sewing, caning and, in particular, rug hooking. She was proud to be a member of the Association of Traditional Hooking Artists, with participation in the Cranberry and the Martha's Vineyard chapters. She traveled to several states, taking courses in hooking and wool dyeing. Her many beautiful works of art were recognized in competitions and awards, including the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Fair.

Following her husband's death in 1997, Mrs. Bell continued her activities in church and community, offering support to the succeeding pastors at Trinity United Methodist Church, taking an active interest in others and meeting new friends from her porch on Trinity Circle in the Camp Ground. She experienced illness and some physical limitations in her later years, but her faithful discipleship and bright, caring spirit remained evident even in her last weeks of decline.

She is survived by her sister, Kathryn Hyde, of Sarasota, Fla., nieces and nephews in addition to her children and their families.

Private family memorial services will take place in Hazleton, Pa., in mid-October.

Memorial gifts and contributions may be made to Trinity United Methodist Church in Oak Bluffs for the Red Bird Mission in southeastern Appalachian Kentucky and to the Martha's Vineyard Camp Meeting Association for the Tabernacle Restoration Project, honoring Mrs. Bell's long-term support for both organizations.