Ruth Vendala Marie Moll, Part II
Last month’s blog looked at Ruth Moll’s childhood and the early years of her working for Katherine and William Butterworth. We are now turning to her life at Hillcrest, both with Katherine and William Butterworth and as the first Director of Butterworth Center. I have struggled with how to organize these two periods in Ruth’s life in a meaningful manner. Because I love historic photographs, I have decided that telling her story mostly through photos is the best option.
As I mentioned last month, soon after Ruth came to work for the Butterworth household, she made her first trip to Cuba. From her stuffed scrapbook, we know that this was the first trip of many. In 1920, she accompanied both William and Katherine to Europe on the Red Star Line on the S.S. Kroonland
ship. The early pages of the scrapbook are filled with numerous playbills like the one below from the London Hippodrome. This was just the start of Ruth’s many visits to plays, musicals, operas, and concerts in Europe, New York and Chicago.
Back in Moline, Ruth continued her close friendship with the other staff at Hillcrest. They had so much fun together in the Hillcrest gardens, the Butterworth’s houseboat and in California at the Butterworth’s other residences.
Several photographs in our archives are marked as being used for passport photographs. It is interesting to see Ruth through the years.
You may have seen a photograph very similar to this one above. During the 1920s many people made the trip to Egypt to see the Pyramids. The Egyptians must have had a photo stop in this location. I have seen many photographs with different people posed in a very similar arrangement.
After Mrs. Butterworth’s passing in 1953, Hillcrest was converted into the Butterworth Center. In her will, Mrs. Butterworth had created the William Butterworth Memorial Trust. The Trust was to be used to fund a meeting center for local not-for-profit organizations. Ruth became the first Director of Butterworth Center and oversaw preparations for its’ opening for meetings in May of 1956.
Just before the house hosted it first meeting, Ruth held an open house. As you can see from the Moline Daily Dispatch, crowds of people lined up to see inside the Butterworth home for the first time.
During the summer of 1990, Ruth fell and was in the hospital for a period. Her doctor explained that it was time for her to retire. At the age of 93 she left the home she had known since 1916 and moved to Friendship Manor. Then three years later she passed away on her 96th birthday. Her funeral brought out many people with fond memories of her long life as “the First Lady of Butterworth Center.” One special memory for me is that a longtime Butterworth staff member was allowed to drive the hearse. During Ruth's tenure as Director of Butterworth Center, George Catterton was responsible for driving Ruth. She had never learned to drive since her first 37 years at Hillcrest the chauffeurs did all the driving.
In closing, I am sharing one of my favorite photographs. These three women, along with Kay Vogel (Director of Deere-Wiman House), would meet for lunch to celebrate their birthdays. I was lucky enough to be invited along twice. This photograph was celebrating Kay’s birthday. These three women I was privileged to know and I miss listening to them chat. Many have asked me if I know what Mrs. Butterworth was like. I answer that since I knew Ruth, I feel that I also knew Mrs. Butterworth. She spent her life with her and I think absorbed many of Mrs. Butterworth's mannerisms and morals. She felt honored to continue Mrs. Butterworth’s legacy in the community for 75 years.
