By Nicole Hamilton
The Cincinnati Enquirer

When people wanted to impress their friends by treating them to a gourmet meal, they'd pay a visit to Ruth Howard.

Trained in the kitchens of Paris and Italy, she taught people to cook in her East Walnut Hills home.

She also was a collector of 18th-century American antiques. Her eight-legged highboy was given to the Taft Museum.

From gourmet dining to fine art and antiques, Ms. Howard loved the finer things in life and traveled the world in search of them.

But Mrs. Howard "won't be remembered for what she had - she'll be remembered for what she did," said her daughter-in-law, Paula Howard of Loveland.

Ruth Long Howard died Tuesday at Deupree Terrace in Oakley from a lung infection. The longtime resident of Avondale and East Walnut Hills was 94.

Raised in a low-income area of Hamilton, Mrs. Howard remembered living on bread and eggs during the great flood of 1913, when the family piano floated in the first floor of her home.

She graduated from Hamilton High School and earned a nursing degree from Cincinnati General Hospital School of Nursing in 1930.

It was through nursing that she met her husband, Robert Howard, an ear, nose and throat doctor.

Mrs. Howard left nursing to raise three sons - all are now doctors - first in Avondale and later in the historic Pogue house on East McMillan Street in East Walnut Hills.

For several years, she was an active member of the Children's Co-op, a group of women who made dolls and other craft items for sale in the Children's Hospital gift shop. She also was co-chair of the 1969 Cincinnati Antiques Festival, which provided major funding for the hospital.

An avid gardener who took classes in ikebana - Japanese floral arrangement - Mrs. Howard volunteered at Krohn Conservatory and in the gift shop at the Civic Garden Center.

Dr. Howard preceded her in death.

Survivors include three sons, Robert of Hampton, Va., John of Fort Lauderdale and William of Loveland; five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Services have been held.

Her remains are in Spring Grove Mausoleum.

Memorials: Krohn Conservatory, 1501 Eden Park Drive, Cincinnati, 45202, or The Scratching Post, 6958 Plainfield Road, Cincinnati, 45236-3734.