Ruth Ann Woods Quiroga

June 13, 1933 - September 19, 2022

Ruth Ann Woods Quiroga passed peacefully at the Alexian Living Village in Signal Mountain, Tennessee. She was predeceased by her son, Daniel, her first husband William Thrasher and second husband Cliff Quiroga. She is survived by three children, Kenneth Thrasher of La Quinta, California; Eugene Thrasher of Chattanooga, Tennessee; Victoria Nelson of Selbyville, Delaware; seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Ruth Ann was born and raised in Los Angeles. She learned to play the piano at a young age and played and taught throughout her life. Her children's earliest memories are of Ruth Ann at the piano playing Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Chopin, and Bach. She was an inspiration to her family and others as she embodied her beliefs in the arts, sciences, and her Anglican faith. She was married first to William Thrasher, a native of Chattanooga. With her divorce in 1965, she returned to California where she obtained a teaching credential with a Master's degree in Reading Education. In 1982 she married Cliff Quiroga. She was a teacher and a Reading Specialist for the Palm Springs Unified School District for 20 years. She lived in Rancho Mirage during that time. She will be well remembered for her contributions in education as well as her work with the Forward Group, the Pachyderm Club, and the mission group she traveled with in 2006 that went to South Africa to feed starving children.

The Desert Sun, October 4, 2022