Ruth Alice Caudill-Grimsley-Lew

Ruth Alice Lew passed peacefully on Friday, November 11, 2016 (Veterans Day). She was the beloved wife of the late John Andrew Lew. Ruth was born March 18, 1928 in Whitesburg, Kentucky a small coal mining town she was the 13th child of 14 siblings. Ruth moved to Alexandria Virginia with her sister Malissa at the age of 16 and joined the war effort working at the Naval Torpedo Station on the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia, where she met her husband, the late George Albert Grimsley Jr., they had 4 children, Michael, Sandra, Melissa, and John. After being a homemaker and mother for several years, she decided to join the working world, and took a job in the Medical Records department at Alexandria Hospital, for the next 10 years. In 1974 she left Virginia and moved to Oxon Hill, Maryland, when she married her late husband, John. They lived in their home there and were married for 27 years. Ruth worked for the federal government at the Pentagon as the Specialist for the Military Health Insurance Program. Ruth was at work the morning of September 11, 2001 when the attack on the Pentagon happened Ruth selflessly helped carry several small children in the day care center to safety escaping the burning structure only to lose her best friend that day. She served the Federal Government for over 25 years and retired to her family home in Oxon Hill, Maryland. Ruth’s legacy was family and her faith they were most important aspects of her life. She enjoyed gardening, reading her Bible, the Baltimore Orioles baseball games, watching the Family Feud game with Steve Harvey, spending time on the water fishing and crabbing with her late husband John her children, and her grandchildren.  Ruth was the loving mother of 4 children preceded in death by her eldest son, George Michael Grimsley of Woodbridge, Virginia .She is survived by 2 daughters, Sandra King-Davis of Austin, Texas; Elaine Melissa Smith of St. Leonard, Maryland; and youngest son, John Hugh Grimsley of Crofton, Maryland; and one older brother, Elic Caudill of Jacksonville Florida.  Ruth’s family continues to include a son-in-law Bill Smith of St Leonard, Maryland; and devoted daughter-in-law, Lisa Wyatt, of Crofton, Maryland,  12 loving grandchildren, 15 great grandchildren and 1 great-great grandchild and several nieces and nephews. A memorial service will be held on Monday, November 21, 2016 from 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the Beall Funeral Home, 6512 Crain Highway, Bowie, Maryland. Interment will be at the Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery on Tuesday, November 22, 2016 at 11:00 a.m.