Our dear mother, grandmother, Aunt and friend Ruth Weger Fedder succumbed to Alzheimer’s disease on December 14, 2015. Born in Frankfurt, Germany on May 28, 1932, Ruth and her late parents, Claire Oettinger Weger and David Weger, along with her older brother, the late Eric Weger, escaped the Holocaust in Nazi Germany following David’s mercifully brief internment at the Buchenwald concentration camp. Upon moving to the United States in 1939, Ruth grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where she met and married the love of her life, Edwin Fedder. Ruth earned a Bachelor’s of Arts Degree in History from Goucher College and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University. She was Board Certified in Clinical Social Work and was a leading advocate for requiring the licensing of social workers in the State of Missouri. Ruth’s career included working as a social worker for the Riverview Gardens School District, St. Louis County, and Malcom Bliss and Jewish Hospitals. She later worked as a therapist for an employee assistance provider and in a private practice of her own, sharing office space with dear friend and sister-in-law Lillian Weger. A huge opera and art fan, Ruth volunteered as an usher for St. Louis Opera Theatre every summer as well as at the St. Louis Art Fair in Clayton each year. She also loved serving as an OASIS volunteer at Spoede Elementary School when her grandchildren were students there. In her retirement, Ruth enjoyed taking classes at Washington University’s Life Long Learner program. An avid swimmer, Ruth could be found at Clayton Shaw Park swimming pool in the summer, at Bally’s in Clayton and in later years, the Clayton Center. For most of her life, Ruth read the New York Times every day and the New Yorker magazine each week. Ruth never met a stranger; she would learn someone’s life story within a few minutes of meeting them and divulge more about her children and grandchildren then they ever cared to know. Ruth is survived by her children, Jane Fedder Brotherton (Lee Brotherton) and David Fedder (Laura Wightman Fedder), seven grandchildren, Emily, Claire and Jessica Lazaroff, Ben Brotherton, Tim (Natalie) Fedder, Alison and Natalie Fedder, ten nieces and nephews, 23 great nieces and nephews, and several great, great nieces and nephews.

The family thanks the wonderful caregivers and staff from Dolan Memory Care who helped Ruth live her final years in dignity, surrounded by love, compassion, laughter and music.

In lieu of flowers, donations to Alzheimer’s Association-St. Louis Chapter or to the Opera Theatre of St. Louis are appreciated.

A memorial service in Ruth’s honor will be held on Sunday December 20, 2015 at 3:30p.m. at the New Mount Sinai Cemetery-Mausoleum Chapel, 8430 Gravois Rd 63123.