Ruth Elizabeth Moroney was born October 4, 1916 in Chicago Illinois. The 4th born of five children, she was the only girl, with her brother Robert (Bobby) being three years younger than she. Her father died when she was 10 years old. She left grammar school in eighth grade. Living on the west side of Chicago, her best friends were Rose McMahon and her sister, Jeanette McMahon. It was through them that she met Joseph A. McMahon, whom she would marry in 1942. Ruth and Joseph had two sons, Thomas J and Joseph E. During the 1950's, Ruth worked on the production line for Motorola on Augusta Avenue until it closed in the early 1960's. Uneducated and unskilled, work was very difficult to find. When in the mid 60's, her husband suffered a stroke and was unable to work Ruth woke up daily at 5:30 am and walked the two miles from her home on West Monroe Street to a place on Cicero and Harrison that employed day laborers for minimum wage $1.00 per hour. Each day she would walk there to see if there was work, usually securing eight hours work. Eventually she was hired full time at the same minimum wage by Cuneo - the place of initial occasional temporary employment. Her job at Cuneo was to pack hardcover books into boxes for shipping. To reach Cuneo each morning, Ruth would wake at 4:00 A.M. dress and walk to the bus stop two blocks from her house and then take two buses to the edge of the city where the Cuneo bus would pick up their employees for the five mile ride to work. Ruth worked there for ten years, every week day, rain, shine, blizzard cold, it didn't matter, her family had to eat. Eventually the hours and journey to work became too much, Ruth stopped working and started to collect Social Security. She and her husband moved from the west side of Chicago to a basement flat on the north side where they lived until Joseph died in 1980. Ruth was quite pleasant and friendly. She appeared rather meek to some, yet had the drive and fire to do what it took to keep her family alive. For many years too proud to ask for government help, she scratched and clawed and kept everyone fed on her own. She had the determination of a lion and the personality of a lamb. Following the death of her husband, Ruth moved to a senior citizen's building at 5801 N. Pulaski in Chicago. She lived there in good health until being diagnosed with lung cancer in 1985. On October 1, 1985, four days before her 69th birthday, Ruth died at home while under the care of hospice. She was laid to rest alongside her husband in Maryhill Cemetery. Two years later, her eldest son Thomas died. He too lies next to them in Maryhill. In her entire life, Ruth never owned a bit of soil nor a blade of grass. Spending her adult life in various apartments, she was never able to own a home. Acutely aware of her lack of education, she stressed education to her children as being the key to a better life. Because of this, no matter how poor she was, there was always a dollar for that month's tuition for each of her sons at Catholic grammar school. Catholic high school was expected, with her sons getting jobs at the school to pay tuition. While her children lacked fine clothing and fancy meals, they never wanted for love or family bonds.
(by Ruth's son Joe McMahon)