Ruth M. Worthing, 81, of Falmouth, Maine, died Saturday April 18, 2009 in the Hawthorne House Nursing Home in Freeport following her extended illness.

Born in Holyoke March 4, 1928, she was the daughter of the late Edward L. and Myrtle (Harding) Worthing, She was educated in South Hadley public schools and was a 1945 graduate of Holyoke High School. She received her BA in history from UMass Amherst and worked briefly as a secretary in Holyoke before moving to Chicago, IL to work for the Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and the Illinois Institute of Technology. She later went to Washington DC as a state department employee, where she worked on the Foreign Relations of the United States series. Retiring in 1978, she relocated to Maine six years later.

She was the sister of Stedman Worthing of Manchester, CA, the aunt of Margaret Walker of Seagoville, TX and Judith Ruiz of Fair Oaks, CA, and is survived by longtime friend, Phyllis Downing of Falmouth, formerly of Ipswich.

Private funeral services are under the direction of the Whittier-Porter Funeral Home of Ipswich.