Ruth Boynton Hunt passed away peacefully on March 20, 2025 in Lakeland, Florida just nine days before her 101st birthday.

Ruth Lillian Spear was born in the small northern Maine town of Perham on March 29, 1924, the daughter of Newton and Helen Spear. Her life growing up centered on the Perham Baptist Church and a two-room schoolhouse. In high school, she rode to Washburn in winter in a horse drawn sleigh until they started plowing the roads for school buses. She was the lead in the senior play and won a 4-H trip to Massachusetts, traveling to Boston on a train for her first visit to a big city.

Ruth studied Business at the Maine School of Commerce and met her future husband Harlan Boynton at Aroostook Potato Growers, where they both worked. They were married on May 24, 1947 and settled in Presque Isle, where they lived for 38 years and raised three children. Following 20 years as a homemaker, Ruth went back to work in food services for the Presque Isle school district.

Ruth and Harlan moved to Zephyrhills, Florida in 1985 where they enjoyed life together and travelled to several Elderhostels, including Hawaii. Following Harlan's passing, Ruth moved to Florida Presbyterian Homes in Lakeland, Florida in 2002. There she found love again and married the Rev. George Hunt in 2005. They took several trips together, including cruises to the Panama Canal and the Maine coast.

Ruth had a very strong Christian faith. In addition to the Baptist Church in Perham, she was very involved in several churches and rarely missed a Sunday service at the Congregational Church in Presque Isle and Presbyterian Churches in Zephyrhills and Lakeland, as well as Beacon Hill Fellowship Church in Lakeland.

Ruth planned for each stage of her long and full life and enjoyed them all. She was honest, kind, hard-working, and always thinking of others. She was an avid reader, and particularly liked historical novels and biographies. She also closely followed the news of the day.

Ruth is survived by her three children, Kathryn Lord and her husband Andrew Miller, of Tallahassee, Florida, William Boynton and his wife Carol, of Concord, New Hampshire and Ann McHatten and her husband Steven, of Presque Isle, Maine; four grandchildren, Julia Edwards, Lauren Boynton, Rachel Berthiaume, and Haley McHatten, three great-grandchildren, Luke, Jack, and Emerson Edwards, two step-grandchildren, and four step-great-grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life Service in Ruth's honor will be held on Friday, April 11, 2025 at 11:00 am at the Westminster Lakeland Chapel in Lakeland, Florida. Burial will be at the VA National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida.