- Date Of Birth: May 13, 1928
- Date Of Death: January 25, 2022
- State: Michigan
Ruth W. (Wulf) Thomas passed away peacefully on Tuesday, January 25, 2022.
Ruth was born, Charlotta Frieda Ruth Wulf, in Leipzig, East Germany on May 13, 1928, where she lived until 1945 when she escaped to West Germany.
In 1948 she returned to Leipzig, East Germany, and helped her family escape from East to West Germany. The family settled in Hamburg, West Germany where she met Herbert M.H. Bardenhagen. They married in 1949 and immigrated to Kalamazoo, Michigan via Ellis Island in 1950. Immigration changed Ruth’s name to Ruth W. Bardenhagen as her given name was considered, by immigration, to be too long. Together they had three children. Herbert and Ruth divorced, and in 1975 she married Francis L. Thomas. They moved to Florence, Colorado in 1979 where they lived for ten years. In 1989 they moved to Hartford, Indiana, which was where Francis had grown up. Following Francis’s worsening condition, as a result of a stroke, they returned to Portage in 1995. Together they spent ten years as “Snowbirds” in Hudson, Florida.
Survivors include her three children, Christian (Renda) Wulf, Mary Hutchins, Deborah (Chuck) Ludlow; grandchildren, Nikki (Rick), Andrea (Matt), Michelle (Derk), Michael, and Charles (Caitlin); great-grandchildren, Alex (Cassidy), Andrew, Brandy, and Brayden. Ruth was preceded in death by her husband, Francis; son, John Bardenhagen; step-children, Shirley Vinyard and Jerry Thomas; son-in-law, Dennis Hutchins.