Ruth E. Riordan, 82
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Ruth E. Riordan, 82, of North Adams died Saturday, March 23, 2013, after a long illness. Sge most loved family, friends, a smart turn on the dance floor and a well-played hand of bridge
Born in North Adams on April 16, 1930, the youngest child of James and Marguerite Muldowney Hanlon, she grew up with her four older sisters on North Eagle Street and in the city's Blackinton section. She was a member of the Drury High School class of 1947.
Mrs. Riordan was employed as a classroom aide in the city's elementary schools for more than 20 years. She had first worked after high school as an operator at the downtown North Adams office of the former New England Telephone Co.
She and her husband, Thomas J. Riordan, an employee of the North Adams Transcript, raised six children in a house on Burnham Street they bought in 1956, and where she lived until she was admitted to North Adams Commons last year.
Mrs. Riordan was an accomplished bridge player and a fixture for decades in games and competitions at the North Adams Regional Hospital and the Harper Center in Williamstown. She led the Rhythm Belles, an all-female troupe of line dancers, during the late 1990s and early 2000s; the group performed throughout Berkshire County and Southern Vermont and later merged with the Berkshire County Line Dancers.
She also was a Friend of the North Adams Public Library, a member and volunteer at the North Adams Historical Society, and a longtime communicant of the former St. Francis Church.
Her husband, who she married Nov. 25, 1950, at the former Church of the Incarnation in Blackinton, died in 1995.
She leaves two daughters, Nancy Apkin and her husband, George, of North Adams and Rebecca Lease and her husband, Paris, of Bristol, Conn.; four sons, Kevin Riordan of Haddon Heights, N.J., Dana Riordan and his wife, Linda, of Adams, Christopher Riordan and his wife, Lynn, of North Adams and Thomas Riordan and his wife, Cathy, of Bristol; a sister, Mary Dean, of North Adams; 13 grandchildren, a great-grandchild, 14 nieces and nephews and many friends.
She was predeceased by her daughter Catherine, in infancy, her three sisters Gertrude Burdick, Dorothy Nadeau and Marguerite Williams, and her brother, James Hanlon.
FUNERAL NOTICE — The funeral for Mrs. Riordan will be Wednesday, March 27, at 11 from St. Elizabeth of Hungary Church. Burial will follow in Southview Cemetery.
A calling hour will be held on Wednesday morning from 10 to 11 at Flynn & Dagnoli-Montagna Home for Funerals, Central Chapels, 74 Marshall St., North Adams. Memorial contributions may be made to the North Adams Historical Society in care the funeral home.