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Ruth Smith celebrates 100th birthday

Has spent entire life in city

YORKTON - Ruth Smith recently celebrated a rather significant birthday at Yorkton Crossing. 

Born, Ruth Beck Aug 12, 1921 at Victoria Cottage Hospital in Yorkton, to Henry and Christie Beck, she marked her 100th birthday with a tea.  

The Becks lived on Fourth North, (house no longer there), and Ruth was the oldest of three children.  

Father Henry owned ‘Henry Beck Dry Goods’. 

Ruth went to Simpson School and graduated from Yorkton Collegiate in 1938. She went on to take a business course and worked three years at the city office. After that she got her Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Arts at the University of Saskatchewan. 

Beck would work 34 years for the Yorkton School Board, retiring in 1981.  

She met Geoff Smith who was training here for the Royal Airforce (England) during the Second World War. He was a pilot. Once the war was over he returned to Canada and they married in 1949. 

Once retired Ruth and Geoff travelled the world; places like a cruise of the Mediterranean, a tour of the South Pacific, Egypt, the Panama Canal, Italy Turkey, and most of Europe. They travelled many times to England, with the last trip celebrating Geoff’s moms 100th birthday.  

Ruth has lived the whole time in Yorkton, with a small cottage at York Lake.