Ruth Newman, a Survivor of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, Dies at 113

Ruth Newman, a Survivor of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, Dies at 113


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Ruth Newman celebrated her 100th birthday in 2001.                    

Ruth Newman, the oldest remaining survivor of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906, died on July 29 at her home in Pebble Beach, Calif. She was 113.

Her death was confirmed this week by her daughter Beverly Dodds, who said that her mother’s memory of the quake had never faded.

“She would tell us she remembered my grandmother being upset because they had just milked the cow earlier, and she had separated the cream and all and put it in containers that got thrown to the floor,” Ms. Dobbs said.

Ms. Newman was 4 when the quake struck early on April 18, 1906, shaking her home on a ranch in Healdsburg, Calif., about 70 miles north of San Francisco.

“She remembered being downstairs and her father picking her up and running out of the house,” Ms. Dobbs said.

Ms. Newman’s death leaves only one known 1906 earthquake survivor: William Del Monte, 109. He was 3 months old when the earthquake hit, according to Lee Houskeeper, an organizer of the quake’s commemoration events.

More than 1,000 people were killed in the earthquake and fires. Measurements of the quake have ranged from magnitude 7.7 to 8.3.

Ms. Newman attended a few of the annual earthquake commemorations in San Francisco. However, her daughter said that on some occasions, Ms. Newman preferred to sleep in rather than rise before dawn to attend.

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Ruth Newman was just four years old when a huge earthquake struck San Francisco, but she remembered it all her life.

“She would tell us she remembered my grandmother being upset because they had just milked the cow earlier and she had separated the cream and all and put it in containers that got thrown to the floor,” Ms Newman’s daughter Beverly Dodds told reporters.
This week it was revealed that Ms Newman, one of the last two known survivors of the quake that killed 3,000 people and destroyed 80 per cent of the city, had passed away. She was 113.


 
More than 3,000 people are believed to have lost their lives in the quake

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Ms Newman had lived on a ranch 70 miles north of the city and was there when the quake hit at 5.12am on April 18, 1906. Although the epicentre of the 7.8 magnitude quake was located in San Francisco, the violent shaking could be felt hundreds of miles away along the San Andreas fault.
“She remembered being downstairs and her father picking her up and running out of the house,” Ms Dodds said.
One of five children, Ms Newman was a strong-willed woman who drove and played golf into her mid-90s and who kept busy knitting, gardening and baking. “She was one who couldn’t sit down,” her daughter said.
Ms Dodds said her parents would have a drink scotch with water every night before bed, a habit she said might have added to her mother's longevity. But she said she may also have had good genes; two of Ms Newman’s siblings were also centenarians.
Ms Newman lived on a ranch 70 miles north of the city but still felt the force of the quake
Ms Dodds said that as a child her mother had stayed on the ranch where she grew up because the house was not damaged. She said she died on July 29 in Pebble Beach, California.
Her death leaves only one known earthquake survivor. William Del Monte, 109, was three months old when the earthquake hit, said Lee Housekeeper, an organizer of the quake’s commemoration events.
Ms Newman attended a few of the annual earthquake commemoration events in San Francisco, which include gatherings at Lotta's Fountain in downtown before dawn.
Ms Newman attended a few of the annual earthquake commemorations in San Francisco. However, her daughter said that on some occasions, Ms. Newman preferred to sleep in rather than rise before dawn to attend.