Ruth McQuillar, standout cook, dies at 92

If you arrived at Ruth McQuillar's house when a baseball game was in progress on TV - especially her beloved Dodgers - you might as well have settled in to watch it with her. You didn't dare even suggest turning it off.

Ruth McQuillar, a true daughter of the South who brought her love of Southern cooking to Philadelphia - convinced that some dishes had curative powers - died Saturday. She was five days from her 93rd birthday. She lived in North Philadelphia.

"Mother Ruth loved to cook and she shared her love for cooking with everyone," said her granddaughter Denise Nelson. "Her special remedy if she heard you were ill was stewed chicken and biscuits."

Ruth was born in Bishopville, S.C., one of the nine children of Jim and Mary Peoples. After arriving in Philadelphia, she joined Solomon Temple Baptist Church and was active with numerous ministries. Her husband died in 1994. She is survived by five daughters, Ruth Jackson, Mary McQuillar, Rosalee Ross, Barbara J. McQuillar and Theresa Carter; two sons, William McQuillar Jr. and James McQuillar; 17 grandchildren; 59 great-grandchildren, and 33 great-great-grandchildren.

Services: 11 a.m. tomorrow at Solomon Temple Baptist Church, 602 W. Erie Ave. Friends may call at 9 a.m. Burial will be in the Gummspring Baptist Church Cemetery, Bishopville, S.C.

- John F. Morrison