Ruth A. Litke

Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 1 p.m. on Monday, September 18, 2023 at St. Augustine’s Catholic Church in St. Cloud for Ruth A. Litke, age 86, of St. Cloud. Ruth passed away August 29, 2023 in Colorado. Reverend Douglas Liebsch will preside. Visitation will be one hour prior to services at the church on Monday. Ruth will be privately laid to rest at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery near Little Falls.

Ruth was born January 5, 1937 in Benton Harbor, Michigan to Floyd and Margaret (Arntz) McDonald. She married Raymond T. Litke on May 7, 1955 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Wichita Falls, Texas, while he was serving in the U.S. Air Force. After four years of service in Cheyenne, Wyoming, they moved to St. Cloud where Ray learned the carpentry trade at the St. Cloud Vocational School. Ruth worked for the Social Security Administration and the V.A. Hospital until their second child was born and she became a stay-at-home mom for the next ten years. It was during that time that they built three new houses and two cabins. She returned to work in 1973 with North Central Pathology. In 1985 she started working for St. Cloud State University and retired from there in 1997. Her lifelong passion was family history and she became the unofficial family archivist.

Ruth will be sadly missed by her husband and best friend Ray, children Kateri (James) Topitzhofer of Hudson, WI, Kenneth (Linda) Litke of Ashby, MN and Randy (Laura) Litke of Ft. Ripley, MN, six grandchildren, five great grandchildren and sisters Janet O’Keeffe of Hastings, NE, Evelyn Paulling of Leesburg, FL and Marion (Dennis) Nendza of Silver City, NM.

Ruth is preceded in death by her parents, brother Kenneth McDonald and sisters Susan Muir and Frances Trigg.