Obituary of Ruth Kerber

Services for Ruth Kerber, who died Monday in her residence at Morning Pointe, will be 2 p.m. Thursday at Rogers Funeral Home. She was 86. Burial will follow at the Frankfort Cemetery. The service will be performed by Rabbi David Wirtschafter of Temple Adath Israel, of which Ruth was a member. Visitation will be held at the funeral home Thursday from noon until time of service. Ruth was a retired school teacher, having begun her career at Thornhill Elementary in Frankfort. The majority of her career was spent teaching grade school in Indianapolis, primarily at School 69. She was completely devoted to her students and her profession. A photo of her appeared once in the Indianapolis Star for refusing to strike. Though she believed strongly in the teacher’s union, she believed more strongly that her students should not have to suffer because of contract negotiations. She was featured twice in lengthy feature stories in the Indianapolis newspaper, once shadowed for a week by the writer, another time explaining the importance of taking her students to Bradford Woods, a camp 30 miles from the city where she exposed her inner-city students to nature. Ruth was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Jan. 29, 1930, to the late Max and Rose Kornreich. She was a graduate of New York University. She was pre-deceased by her two husbands, Adolf Kerber and Herbert Liebman, as well as a daughter, Ellen Liebman. She is survived by her brother, Dr. Milton Kornrich (Rhoda), Coram, N.Y.; two sons, Dan (Susan) and James (Karen) Liebman, both of Frankfort; two daughters, Paula (Lee) Manders, of Indianapolis, and Gayle (Howard) Ravit, of Sterling, Va.; 12 grandchildren, Jennie Liebman Heiert, Joe Liebman, David Liebman, Ben Liebman, Mitch Manders, Jesse Manders, Michele Ravit, Jacob Koch, Leah Koch, Rebecca Koch, Nathan Dailey and Jonathan Dailey; and three great-grandsons, William Heiert, Evan Manders and Connor Dailey. Pallbearers will be her grandchildren. The family requests donations in Ruth’s memory be made to the Capital Ovarian Cancer Organization, PO Box 1762, Frankfort, KY 40602-1762.