By Emily J. Minor
BRINY BREEZES — Ruth Littlefield, a longtime Briny Breezes resident who moved here in the 1950s and nurtured a reputation for her generosity, artistic talent and getting herself in and out of mostly hilarious jams, has died at age 95.
“She was feisty,” said Edith Behm, a family friend who spent a lot of her growing years with the Littlefield family. “Sometimes she would open her mouth and she’d just stick her foot in somebody else’s.”
A woman who loved a good piece of gossip and a cocktail, Mrs. Littlefield moved here with her husband, Frederick, in 1955. She was a beautician; he worked for a builder. The couple spent about half their time in Florida, and the other half of the year at their beloved spot on Cape Cod. There, Mrs. Littlefield ran a beauty parlor and for a long while did the hair of President Kennedy’s sister, Rosemary, until a fancier salon opened on the island, said her son, Dana Littlefield.
Dana Littlefield remembers his childhood as wholesome and fun. And with his mother, it was always an adventure, he said. The Littlefields had two other sons, Nelson and Lee, who also survive their mother. Mrs. Littlefield died on Oct. 25 of this year. Dana Littlefiled said his father also died on Oct. 25 — in 1985. And Mrs. Littlefield’s second husband, Robert Dumas, died on Oct. 25, 1995.
Ruth Littlefield attended high school on Cape Cod and did not take kindly to gender limitations put on her by society, her son said.
She opened a weight-loss salon, worked with oils and acrylics on canvas and also did wood carvings with leaded glass. In Florida, she was president of the Briny Breezes Hobby Club, and a member of the Art League and the Red Hat Society.
Dana Littlefield said his mother’s ashes will be taken to Cape Cod this spring and buried in the family plot. The remains of Frederick, her husband of 50 years, are buried there as well — in one of his well-used tackle boxes.
Comments