Ruthann Tanner (Spath) Walker

DOB: 04 February 1943
Died: 06 July 2023, at the family home in Pineville, in
the loving hands of her husband and daughter
Born Ruthann Spath in Pulaski, NY, to parents Harold
and Elizabeth (Rowell) Spath. Ruthann was educated in
the Pulaski school system, then completed the Syracuse
University Legal Studies Program.

Ruthann’s professional work included Human Resources at Schoeller Paper in Pulaski;
Hoag & Ledden Law Office in Pulaski; Selkirk Lighthouse & Marina in Port Ontario, R. D.
Ventre & Associates in Liverpool; then H. Charles Livingston & Associates in Watertown.
Ruthann was a seventeen-year member of the Sandy Creek Central School Board; a
charter and six-year member of the NYS-DEC advisory Salmon River Corridor Committee,
becoming its chair; a long-serving member of the Board of Directors of the Pulaski
Health Center. She was a member of Eastern Star. As a legal professional, she helped
many in the community to prepare for and provide through their final days. She had an
abiding love for all things historic, for lighthouses, for helping anyone with interior
design, for her depth of expertise in furnishings and Oriental rugs, and was laughingly
known among family and close friends by her Indian name -- ‘She Who Moves
Furniture.’
All said, she was the ultimate legal professional, a loving and thoroughly loved mother,
wife, neighbor and friend. She was truly one of the brightest lights to ever shine in
Pulaski, Sandy Creek and Lacona throughout her life.
Beginning part-time in mid-1987 through 2006, Ruthann became an increasingly more
integral enthusiast, volunteer and eventual part-time employee, actively assisting in
efforts to restore, develop, promote and advance the historic Selkirk Lighthouse in Port

Ontario, being particularly instrumental in helping to establish, build and promote the
business of providing actual accommodations in lighthouses throughout the world, now
an unparalleled international success story.
Married at the Selkirk Lighthouse in 2004 to Jim Walker, she lived and remained active
locally through his successive deployments to the Middle East until the opportunity
arose for the two of them to live and work in Germany together for two years. Taking
every opportunity to travel, the two were able to visit and enjoy more than 20 countries
together during their years of a most joyous marriage.
Ruthann is survived by her adoring husband Jim; son David Tanner of Illinois with
children Victoria, Mariah and Jack; daughter Nicole Tanner of Sandy Creek, with children
Emily and Zachary; son Evan Tanner of Maryland with spouse Amy (Sprague) with
children Taylor and Thatcher; step-daughter Jacquelyn (Walker) Lambert of Maine with
spouse Christopher Lambert with sons Logan and Cole.
Ruthann’s living siblings are Edwin Spath of Pennsylvania, Douglas Spath of
Pennsylvania, Bruce Spath of Germany. Her brother Leon Spath of Queensbury, NY,
recently pre-deceased her.

A Celebration of Life will be August 20, 2023 at the Ringgold Fire Department, 12 Lake St, Pulaski, NY from 2-5pm.

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