Ruth Rueneta Bostick Arledge, 85, of Asheville, died Monday, Feb. 18, 2013, at Select Specialty Hospital in Carrollton, Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth).

Ruth was born in St. Louis, Mo. on Jan. 9, 1928 to the late Rueneta Snellings Bostick and Virgil LaRue Bostick. She was preceded in death by her husband of 44 years, Lawrence Allen Arledge, former US Marine Corps; veteran of WWII and owner of Exxon and Amoco service stations in Asheville.

Ruth attended the Plonk School of the Creative Arts on Charlotte Street in Asheville, N.C., then earned an associate’s degree at Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, where she later served as acting registrar. She was an executive assistant in the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

She married Lawrence Allen Arledge of Columbus, Feb. 14, 1954, and became a homemaker and mother. In the mid-1980s, she worked as a caregiver at Givens Estates and elsewhere in the vicinity. In recent years, she lived with her elder son in the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas where she attended Stonebriar Community Church, Frisco, Texas. She was a church soloist throughout North Carolina and choir member, in her youth, and had a lifelong passion for great church, classical and theatrical music.

She is survived by her three children, Lawrence Allen Arledge Jr. of Frisco, Texas; Cheryl Lynn Arledge [Lynn] of Greensboro, N.C.; and Curtis Yates Arledge and his wife, Diane, of Darien, Conn. and their four children. She is also survived by two sisters, Shirley Bostick Casey of Anderson, S.C. and Rueneta Bostick Barclay of Keller, Texas, as well as three nieces in South Carolina and Texas.

Visitation will held at Groce Funeral Home, on Tunnel Road, on Friday, Feb. 22, from 6-8 p.m. A memorial service will be held Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013 in Beverly Hills Baptist Church of Asheville, N.C. with Dr. Billy King officiating. The service will begin at noon. A graveside service will be held at the Columbus Baptist Church cemetery, in Columbus at 3 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family graciously asks that you consider a memorial contribution in Ruth’s memory to either Autism Speaks, 1060 State Road, 2nd Floor, Princeton, NJ 08540 or to the Baptist Children’s Homes of N.C., P.O. Box 338, Thomasville, N.C.  27361-0338.

The online register is available at www.grocefuneralhome.com.