Ruth (Leitzen) Epstein

Ruth Epstein died at Armbrook Village, Westfield, MA on September 28, 2024, at 99 years old. Her extraordinarily rich and creative life and her zest moved everyone she knew. A mixed-media artist, entrepreneur, collector, family historian, and, not least, mother of four and wife of 56 years to Bill Epstein, Ruth was born in 1925 in Holyoke, Massachusetts. She was the first child of East European immigrants, Morris and Lillian Leitzen, who came to the U.S. circa 1920. Her grandmother, Hava Mittleman, remained in Poland and died in a Nazi round-up of her entire village, an atrocity Ruth carefully researched as part of a document she made about her family’s tragic fate in the Holocaust. After graduating from Syracuse University, where she studied fashion design and merchandising, Ruth worked at G. Fox and Co. department store in Hartford, CT; she would be known throughout her life for her modern elegance. In the 1970s, Ruth and her sister Dolores launched the fine jewelry and home goods store Metro Arts in Springfield, MA.  A dedicated artist, Ruth changed mediums every decade. She was a weaver, sculptor, quilter, doll-maker, photographer and master collagist; in 2014, when she was 89, she had a retrospective exhibition on Martha’s Vineyard, where she lived for thirteen years. Curious and worldly, she was a prodigious reader and launched and programmed an international film series at her apartment building in South Palm Beach, FL. Above all, Ruth was a mother who derived her deepest joy from her children. “I’m a lucky duck” she often said in her final years, referring to the love she felt from her sons, daughter, and grandchildren. Ruth lost her beloved son Danny in 2022, who was developmentally disabled. In the 1970s, she met with Massachusetts Governor Dukakis and other elected officials to advocate for closing large institutional facilities and creating a system of small “community homes;” today, this system she helped create is the gold standard for residential care. Ruth leaves her sons Mitch and Rick Epstein and daughter Lisa Epstein; her grandchildren Hannah and Sam Epstein, Lucia Bell-Epstein, and Leah Littlefield; her daughters-in-law Susan Bell and Susan McFarlin and son-in-law Ivory Littlefield. The family is grateful to Barbara Mikuski and Celeste Hart-Legere for their loving care of Ruth. We are also grateful to the exceptionally fine staff at Armbrook Village and at Healing Hands. The funeral will be held at the Sons of Zion Cemetery, 72 Ludlow Rd, in Chicopee, MA on Monday, September 30 at 10:30am.  In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to The Arc in Massachusetts https://thearcofmass.org.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Ruth (Leitzen) Epstein, please visit our floral store.