Hazel Ruth Vanhook, 83, passed on to heaven on September 9, 2024. Ruth was born to Bious and Virginia McGee in Olinger, VA. She graduated from Appalachia High School.
Ruth married Warren D. Vanhook and they were married 62 years at the time of his passing. They moved to northern Indiana where they lived for many years and raised their family in the community of Etna Green. Their life journey together also took them to Tennessee, North Carolina, and eventually back home to Virginia. Ruth was a resident of Richmond at the time of her passing.
Ruth was a devoted wife and mother. She adored her five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Ruth was a consummate homemaker. She was an excellent cook and baker. Her canned pickles and pies won blue ribbons at the county fair. She was particularly known for her pecan and Azar’s strawberry pies.
Ruth canned vegetables out of her garden, raised a flower bed, and tended to her house plants. She liked to knit, crochet, embroider, sew and cross stitch.
She also ran a couple of homegrown businesses while maintaining the home. Ruth was truly a Proverbs 31 woman.
Ruth was a very active member of the independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, most notably the Etna Green Church of Christ and the Christian Church in Sanford, NC that she and her husband helped start. Ruth was a member of Compass Christian Church in Mechanicsville.
Her many acts of Christian service included teaching children’s Sunday School and VBS classes; serving as a church deaconess; and visiting numerous shut-ins in the community. In her later years, Ruth devoted herself to an intercessory prayer ministry for the sick, along with sending greeting cards to the sick and shut ins.
Ruth also supported various charities that were near and dear to her heart. Those included St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the SPCA.
Ruth was preceded in death by her parents; sister, Betty, and her husband, Warren. Ruth is survived by her daughter, Dawn Worsham (Dennis); her son, Del Vanhook (Jenny); her brother, Buck McGee (Melissa); her grandchildren: Gillian, Todd, Luke, Aaron, and Chloe and her great-grandchildren: Annabelle, Owen, and Graysen.
No formal services will be held. Memorial gifts in Ruth’s memory may be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or Veterans of Foreign Wars.
