Ruth U. Keeton (1919 – December 14, 1997) was a member and chairperson of the Howard County Council in Maryland. In addition to this elected office, she was appointed to serve with multiple state committees including the Baltimore Regional Transportation Committee and Housing Task Force.

Early life

Ruth Urice was born in Vinton, Iowa, in 1919 to Mr. and Mrs. Logan Urice. Her father later retired as the postmaster of Vinton and her mother had a master's degree in home economics. She had two brothers, Logan Jr. and Kadel, and a sister, Mrs. John Drilling. Ruth attended Northwestern University in the latter 1930s and graduated as a Phi Beta Kappa member. She met Morris Keeton outside Chicago in 1943 and they married in 1944. Early in their relationship, Ruth and Morris manned an inter-racial work camp for their Quaker church in Chicago, intended to break down racial discrimination. The couple moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1947 when Morris began a 30-year tenure with Antioch College. Morris taught in Germany in the mid-1950s while Ruth worked abroad for the

American Friends Service Committee The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends (''Quaker'') founded organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by Am ...

. During this time in August 1954, Ruth's mother died in an airplane crash in Iowa. The Keetons moved to Maryland when Morris helped form an Antioch College campus in

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

in 1969 with James Rouse.

Public service

From 1975 to 1988, Keeton was a member of the Howard County Council, running on a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

of Columbia residents sponsored by the Columbia Democratic Club including Ginny Thomas, Lloyd Knowles and Richard Anderson. Keeton served as council chair from 1979 to 1984, and championed community causes such as affordable housing. In 1981, Governor Harry Hughes appointed Keeton to the Maryland State Housing task force. She was a member of the Patuxent River Commission which produced a land management plan for the river's

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

in 1984.

Illness, death, and legacy

In 1988, Keeton told her husband that she was starting to forget street names. Eventually diagnosed with

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

, she was cared for by her husband and died in her home on December 14, 1997. When she left public service for health reasons eight years prior, Howard County leaders dedicated a room with her name in Columbia's Harper's Choice community center. The Ruth Keeton House was also established nearby, on Ruth Keeton Way, to provide assisted living for disabled elderly people. The Keetons raised two sons, Gary and Scot, and a daughter, Joan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Keeton, Ruth 1919 births 1997 deaths Northwestern University alumni People from Vinton, Iowa People from Yellow Springs, Ohio People from Columbia, Maryland County commissioners in Maryland 20th-century American politicians Maryland Democrats