Ruth T Bedford

Ruth Thomas Bedford of Westport, daughter of Frederick T. and Lucie Thomas Bedford and the last surviving grandchild of Westport philanthropist Edward T. Bedford, founder of the Westport Weston Family Y, died June 15 at her Greens Farms home. She was 99. Her death followed by more than a month that of her niece, Lucie C. McKinney, a fellow Greens Farms resident, who died May 10 at the age of 80. She attended Foxcroft School in Virginia and upon graduation worked in social services. She served with the American Red Cross in the European theater during World War II. She had a great interest in the New York theater and worked for Rodgers and Hammerstein as a stage manager on several Broadway shows. She was a licensed seaplane pilot, an accomplished sailor, golfer, tennis player and horse woman. Upon returning to Connecticut she volunteered at Norwalk Hospital for more than 50 years Bedford, who died in June 2014, had decided to leave a gift from her estate to the place she cherished most: the Foxcroft School near Middleburg, Va., an all-girls preparatory school she attended until graduating in 1932. Though Bedford had indicated that she planned to leave something for the school, her bequest stunned Foxcroft administrators. A Standard Oil heiress, Bedford gave her alma mater $40 million, a single donation to be announced Tuesday that will more than double the school’s endowment. Foxcroft officials believe it to be the largest gift ever to an all-girls school and one of the largest gifts to a secondary school from a woman. She is survived by her niece, Cythlen Maddox, and nephews, James McCashin, Fred McCashin, Bruce McCashin, Briggs Cunningham, III, her cousin, Helen Watkins and several great nieces and nephews. She is predeceased by her sisters, Lucie Bedford Cunningham Warren, Helen Bedford McCashin , Mary Bedford, her niece, Lucie Cunningham McKinney, and her nephew, John McCashin.