Joe and Ruth Howell sit nearly every Sunday in the same pew: halfway up the center aisle on the right, as you face the altar. They have been at Trinity for over 50 years, joining after moving to Boonsboro from Hagerstown.
Joe is retired from the B&O and Chessie System railroads, having served as a conductor for 4 decades and countless miles up and down the rails. Ruth is a talented seamstress and needlework artist. Many projects around the church are the work of Ruth and her friends Gert Peterson, Mary Smith and Evelyn Nicodemus, including nearly all of the paraments that we currently use. Recalls Ruth, “We made them all with the exception of the purple ones. Sometimes the project required a little ingenuity. Mary Smith’s evening purse made a beautiful golden crown and I once knew how many French knots it takes to make a lamb’s woolly coat. I’ve forgotten, but I know it was a lot!” A recent project was an acolyte robe custom fitted to one of our little acolytes.
Both the Howells have served our church faithfully, Joe on council, many committees, pancake suppers, food bank and lots and lots of painting. Ruth worked on our bulletins “in the day when it was a volunteer job, the office was a cubbyhole on the top floor of the building and the bulletins were cranked out on a mimeograph machine.”
Joe and Ruth have two sons, a daughter, and three granddaughters. and have lived in Boonsboro for fifty-two years. As for hobbies, Joe enjoys volunteering at Boonsboro’s American Legion Post and feeding and watching the birds and squirrels. Both like to read and get a lot of pleasure from their two kitties, Sunshine and Cupcake. Their back yard on Ford Avenue has grave markers for six cats that have been companions over the years.
Say hello to the Howells this Sunday!
