Ruth G. Hammack

Ruth Loretta Patricia Hammack (Pene) died on Aug. 25, 2017, in Spokane Valley.  She was the first daughter of Ruth Fernberg Gibbons and Charles Anthony Gibbons of Seattle.  She had two sisters: Dorothy Marie Speidel of Sacramento, Calif. and Charlynn Ann Coleman (deceased) of Chicago.

She was a wife, mother, typist, Avon sales person and oil painter.

Ruth was born on Sept. 29, 1922, on the remembrance of the day for St. Michael the Archangel, in Boulder, Colo., where her father was attending the University of Colorado.

Ruth grew up in Berwyn, IlI., Alameda and San Francisco, Calif. and Seattle,.  She attended Lincoln High School in Seattle and graduated from Holy Names Academy in Seattle in 1940. She attended Seattle University where she studied engineering, and then the University of Washington in the School of Architecture from 1944-1945.

Ruth worked as a statistical typist at the office of George W. Stoddard, Architects and Engineers in Seattle.  This is where she met her future husband, Sam Hammack, Jr..  Sam became the Director of Architects at the John Graham Architects and Engineering Co. of the Space Needle designer fame.

Ruth married Sam Hammack Jr. on July 23, 1949, at the old St. Anne's Catholic Church on Queen Anne Hill.  Sam died on June 20, 2004, in Cheney on Father's Day.

Together they raised a family of six children: Patti (and Jim) Richardson,of Sumner, Wash.; Vickie (and Don) Kennedy of Medical Lake; Terri (and Luis) Flores of Seattle; Michael Hammack ( deceased), Judy Hammack of Seattle and Larry ( and Sheryl) Hammack of Veradale, Wash.

Ruth leaves behind 10 grandchildren, Matthew Kennedy, Timothy Kennedy, Michael Culp, Christian Culp, Dwight Hammack, Jamie Hammack, Wendi Flores, Shelleen Creed, Ariel Francis, and Trea Francis. There are also 10 great-grandchildren, Marie, Kaley, Michael, Ryan, Lillian, Aiden, Ethan, Teagan, James and Natalie.

A funeral mass will be celebrated at St. Mary's Catholic Church, 304 S. Adams Road, Spokane Valley on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017, at 10 a.m. Burial will be at Spokane Memorial Gardens, 5509 S. Cheney Spokane Road.