Ruth Taylor

Ruth E. Taylor, 91, of Cambridge, died Monday, August 13, 2012, at Hammond-Henry Hospital, Geneseo. Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Thursday, August 16th, at the Augustana Lutheran Church, Andover. Rev. Jan Veseth will officiate. Burial will be in the Andover Cemetery where military services will be conducted by the Andover American Legion. Visitation will be one hour prior to the service at the church. Memorials may be made to the Augustana Lutheran Church or the Cambridge Ambulance Service. Stackhouse-Moore Funeral Services, Cambridge, is assisting the family with the arrangements.

Ruth E. Larson was born January 20, 1921 in Lynn Township, Henry County, Illinois, the daughter of Andrew and Emma Nelson Larson. She was educated in Lynn Township and Woodhull area rural schools and graduated from Woodhull High School in 1938. She attended the Moline Lutheran School of nursing, graduating in 1942. She was a Registered Nurse and served in the U.S. Navy Nurses Corps during World War II. Her marriage to Kenneth R. Dahlberg took place on March 21, 1945 in Honolulu, Hawaii. He passed away on January 1, 1972. She later married Harold O. Taylor on February 24, 1978. He died January 28, 1993.

From 1962 to 1982, she worked as the school nurse for Cambridge Community Unit Schools. Her memberships include the Andover American Legion Post 465, the Cambridge Senior Citizens, and the Augustana Lutheran Church, where she had served on the church council, was parish nurse for three years, was active in WELCA, and served as a Sunday school teacher. She enjoyed making quilts for the Lutheran World Relief and lap robes for nursing homes. Ruth had served five summers as camp nurse for the Lutheran Church Camp in Lake Geneva, WI and later in Oregon, IL, and she conducted a day camp for handicapped children for several summers.

Those surviving are two sons and a daughter-in-law, Douglas Dahlberg, Cambridge, Roger and Cheryl Dahlberg, Eastman, WI, a step son and his wife, David and Michelle Taylor, Shelby, NC, and a foster daughter-in-law and her husband, Linda and Don Billiet, Kewanee. Other survivors include two grandchildren, Matthew (Katie) Dahlberg, Kari (Ed) Zabel, step grandchildren, John Taylor, Mary Taylor, Anne (Jonathan) Casperson, great grandchildren, Millie Dahlberg, Leah Casperson, and Madison Burger. Her parents, her two husbands, a daughter, Cheryl, a foster son, Jack Elliott, a step daughter-in-law, a granddaughter, and nine brothers and sisters preceded her in death.