Ruth Ellen Bascom (; February 4, 1926 – August 26, 2010) was an American politician who served as the first female

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

, from 1993 until 1996.

Early life

Bascom was born Ruth Ellen Fenton in

Ames, Iowa Ames () is a city in Story County, Iowa, United States, located approximately north of Des Moines in central Iowa. It is best known as the home of Iowa State University (ISU), with leading agriculture, design, engineering, and veterinary medici ...

, the daughter of two university professors. She was raised in

Manhattan, Kansas Manhattan is a city and county seat of Riley County, Kansas, United States, although the city extends into Pottawatomie County. It is located in northeastern Kansas at the junction of the Kansas River and Big Blue River. As of the 2020 cen ...

Career

As mayor, Bascom worked to revitalize

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Eugene, removing a fountain that blocked traffic on Broadway and Willamette streets and creating bicycle and pedestrian paths. The Riverbank Trail System, which extends for twelve miles through the city along the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...

, is named for her.

Personal life

Bascom met her future husband, John U. Bascom, when the two were sixth-graders. The couple moved to Eugene in 1960 and had six children. On August 15, 2010, Bascom was the passenger of a car driven by her husband, John Bascom. Bascom reportedly fell asleep at the wheel and struck several trees and large boulders on

U.S. Route 395 U.S. Route 395 (US 395) is a U.S. Route in the western United States. The southern terminus of the route is in the Mojave Desert at Interstate 15 near Hesperia. The northern terminus is at the Canada–US border near Laurier, where the road ...

near

Burns, Oregon Burns is a city in and the county seat of Harney County, in the U.S. state of Oregon. According to the 2010 census, the population was 2,806. Burns and the nearby city of Hines are home to about 60 percent of the people in the sparsely pop ...

. Ruth Bascom suffered major injuries in the accident and was hospitalized. Ruth Bascom died from a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

and injuries sustained in the accident on August 26, 2010, at the age of 84.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bascom, Ruth 1926 births 2010 deaths Politicians from Ames, Iowa Mayors of Eugene, Oregon Women mayors of places in Oregon Kansas State University alumni Cornell University alumni Road incident deaths in Oregon 21st-century American women