Former Ajijic resident and Guadalajara Reporter columnist Ruth Merrimer has died in Palm Springs, California at the age of 86.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri on May 26, 1925, Merrimer attended St. Louis University and worked as a professional band singer on tourist river boats on the Mississippi River.
She moved to Southern California in 1962 and first visited Mexico with her husband Robert Merrimer in 1967. While engaged in making documentaries for the Mexican Department of Tourism, the pair traveled the highways and byways of Mexico together, finally making Puerto Vallarta their permanent home for ten years. During that decade, Merrimer worked as a scriptwriter and a research-writer for Keystone Publications, a Hollywood Documentary Film Company. She also wrote many articles and stories about Mexico that were published in various publications, including a book of short stories called “Tall Tales and True Tales of Mexico.”
The Merrimers moved to Ajijic in 1986, where she worked on her novel “Champagne and Torillas,” inspired by characters she had met along her way in Mexico and points north, south, east and west. It was finally published in 2001. In 1999, after the death of her husband in Tucson, where the couple had eventually moved, Merrimer moved back to Ajijic and began a new career as a columnist for the Guadalajara Reporter. She held that post until 2003, returning to California in 2004.
Ruth enjoyed her retirement and her family there. She is survived by two daughters, Linda Conkey and Pam Morely of Southern California. She had six grandchildren: Frank Morley, Julie Rivera, Kimberly Koontz, Tommie Archuleta and Megan Morf. Her great-grandchildren were Christopher Morley, Justin, Alexander,Vincent and Lexie Rivera, Mikey Archuleta, Courtney and Kaitlin Koontz and Marius Morf.
Her twin sister, Ruby Holmer, lives in Ormond Beach, Florida.
Merrimer’s family and many friends at Lakeside, in California, and around Mexico will remember her tremendous wit, her sassy walk and her irresistible grin.