Ruth Mary Burdick (nee Ricker) of Wauwatosa died Dec. 20, 2008, at age 92.
She was born in Milwaukee on July 10, 1916, daughter of Harry Reginald Ricker, assistant secretary of Northwestern Mutual Life, and Faye Millicent Ricker of North Prairie. She grew up on Milwaukee's East Side, attended Maryland Avenue Grade School and graduated from Riverside High School in 1934. At Riverside, her favorite subjects were art and speech, and she was art editor of the student yearbook. Her father encouraged her to try out for a play. She auditioned by reciting an Emily Dickinson poem and The Declaration of Independence in a variety of voices.
She studied art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she became a member of Alpha Phi Sorority. In 1937, when she was 21, she went on a trip to Europe with six other girls in the Floating Academy of Sappho. On her trip, she met and talked with Bette Davis, who was also onboard. She toured France, England, Austria and Switzerland.
She enrolled at the Vogue School of Fashion Art in Chicago. Her fashion drawings used to appear in The Grand's ads. For many years, she worked at Lorraine's Women's Apparel and illustrated Lorraine's ads in Exclusively Yours.
On Sept. 21, 1941, she married Irwin Henry Burdick, commodore of the Pewaukee Yacht Club, famous sailor for years on Pewaukee Lake, designer and builder of iceboats, rugged outdoorsman and salesman of industrial tools and machinery for Milwaukee-based Shadbolt & Boyd Co. In 1942, they moved into their home in Wauwatosa, where she lived for 67 years until the day she died. In 1967, Irv died at home in his sleep at age 58 after going for a final solo iceboat ride on Pewaukee Lake.
She was well-known as an actress in local theater from 1952 on with Community Players of Wauwatosa and Elm Grove, YMCA Players and Wauwatosa Village Playhouse, and starred in many plays and musicals over the years, including "The Corn Is Green," "Hay Fever," "Blithe Spirit," "Night Must Fall," "The Women," "The Miracle Worker," "Music Man," "Once Upon a Mattress" and "Look Homeward, Angel."
She was also known as a fine pastel portrait artist. She did a series of charcoal portraits of Milwaukee's Mr. America, Dick Bacon. In 2003, an exhibit of her art was organized at First Congregational of Wauwatosa.
She was an example to all who knew her of positive thinking and aging nobly with dignity. She gave comfort and cheer to many older female friends during their final time. She had many lifelong women friends, including young women who lived in the room above her garage while attending college.
She is survived by her children, Robert (Linda) Burdick, Beatrice Burdick Waller and her longtime primary caregiver Brad Burdick, better known as the poet Antler (life partner Jeff Poniewaz); grandchildren, Andrew (Candace) Burdick, Elizabeth (Howard) Mueller, Kimberly and Jessica Burdick, John and David Waller; great-grandchildren, Mya and Finn Burdick; other relatives and friends.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Irwin H. Burdick.
The family thanks Sally Hokanson, Maureen McDonald and Vitas Hospice Home Health Care for assisting her longtime primary caregiver, her son Brad, thus enabling her to fulfill her wish to die at home and not go to a nursing home.
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