March 31, 1913 – Friday, June 17, 2011

Service Information
The Peterson Chapel Buffalo
Friday June 24, 2011
2:00 p.m.

Visitation Information

Ruth E. Moore
Ruth Evelyn (Bjore) Moore, age 98 passed away peacefully at her home in Buffalo, Minnesota surrounded by her family on Friday, June 17, 2011.

Ruth was born on March 31, 1913 on the family farm in Wendell, Minnesota to Truls & Gurine (Baasen) Bjore. She was the eighth of nine children. She grew up in Wendell and went to school there through the 11th grade. They did not offer 12th grade in Wendell so Ruth rode a train to Minneapolis and lived with her older sister Agnes and her family where Ruth attended 12th grade in St. Louis Park, Minnesota and graduated in 1932.

Ruth had many memories of growing up on a farm in Wendell. They had to walk 1½ miles to school. If it was really cold in the wintertime, her dad would take the kids to school in the sleigh. Her mom would heat up bricks to use to keep their feet warm. In the summertime, if it was really hot, the kids would sleep outside on the ground as it was cooler than sleeping in the house. They did not have electricity so they used kerosene and gas lamps for light. Ruth’s mother Gurine would flatten tin cans and cut out various animals freehand from them that could stand up. Her brother George built Ruth and her brother Jimmy each a miniature house and barn in the woods that they would play with. Ruth loved looking through the Sears Roebuck Catalog and cutting out people and clothes to use for paper dolls.

On May 11, 1955, Ruth met De L. Moore on a Greyhound bus on her way to Billings, Montana. It was love at first sight and they were married on September 25, 1955 in Anchorage, Alaska as De was stationed there in the U.S. Army. Being an Army wife, they moved to Fort Lewis, Washington in 1957 and to Bamberg, Germany in 1959. While they were stationed in Bamberg, they adopted their daughter, Debra Lynn, when she was only 32 hours old. They moved back to Fort Lewis, Washington in 1961 and to Buffalo, Minnesota in 1963.

Ruth worked at the Baldwin Truck Stop in Buffalo for her sister Gilma and brother-in-law Howard Baldwin. In 1966, the family moved into the Buffalo Hotel to become the caretakers and to run the café that was next to it. Ruth would get up really early in the mornings and bake cookies and pies from scratch, along with donuts. She was a great cook and loved baking things. She started working at Ben Franklin around 1968 and retired from there in 1975. Around 1984, Ruth became the caretaker of the Guardian Angels apartment complex in Zimmerman. She moved back to Buffalo in 1987 and spent her winters in Apache Junction, Arizona. In January 1996, Ruth moved to Phoenix and came back to Buffalo for six weeks every summer. In November 2007, Ruth and her dog Nipper moved back to Buffalo permanently and lived in a beautiful apartment overlooking Buffalo Lake that she just loved.

Ruth was very active after she retired. While living in Phoenix, she went to aerobics three times a week, played on a shuffleboard league two times a week, was the Treasurer for bingo, grilled all the sausages every Saturday for pancake breakfasts, plus walked her dog Nipper every morning and evening. She loved baking cookies and pies for her friends in the park she lived in. She made her grand-daughters very detailed Barbie doll furniture out of plastic canvas. Volunteering was also a large part of her life. When she was in her early 80’s, she went roller skating with the Girl Scouts. In her late 80’s and early 90’s, she volunteered at the local Girl Scout Day Camp and at the Fishing Klinic for Kids. Many family gatherings for the various holidays were held at her apartment. She loved to cook and bake for her family, read, do word puzzle books, play solitaire, 7-Up and Rummy, go camping with her daughter Deb and son-in-law Clay, watch The Price is Right, Wheel of Fortune and the Minnesota Twins baseball games, listen to her grand-daughters Jamie and Sara sing karaoke, play with her great grand-daughter Mackenzie, go out for coffee with her son-in-law Clay and the guys at Brooks, and eat tootsie rolls!

She was a wonderful person, daughter, sister, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, and friend. She is survived by her daughter Debbie (Clay) O’Flanagan of Buffalo, grand-daughters Jamie (David) Parks of Waverly and Sara (Troy) Winter of Moorhead, great grand-daughter Mackenzie Parks of Waverly, sister-in-law Dorothy Bjore of Phoenix, Arizona, her dog and faithful companion Buster, and many other relatives and friends.

Ruth was preceded in death by her husband, De L. Moore in 1976, all eight of her brothers and sisters, Gustine (Ole) Sandvick, Agnes (Everett) Tracy, Rudolph Bjore, Esther (Edward) Ellingson, Gilma (Howard) Baldwin, Myrtle (Arnold) Soliah, George Bjore, James (Mildred) Bjore, and her parents.

A celebration of life service will be held at 2:00 PM on Friday, June 24, 2011 at the Peterson Chapel, 119 Central Avenue in Buffalo, Minnesota. Visitation will start at 1:00 PM on Friday until the time of the service. Interment will follow at the Zion Lutheran Cemetery in Buffalo, Minnesota. Memorials or donations in her name to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure or the American Cancer Society are preferred in lieu of flowers.

The Peterson Chapel of Buffalo is proud to serve the family.
The Peterson Chapel is proud to be serving the family.