Neighbors: Ruth Ritenour

When Ruth Ritenour moved to Siesta Key with her husband and three children almost 50 years ago, their home in Siesta Isles was one of the only homes there.

“My husband could go outside and hit a golf ball and not hit a single house,” she said.

Today, plenty of houses surround Ritenour in Siesta Isles, but she doesn’t mind more neighbors. As a long-time resident of the community, she looks forward to attending the monthly “Siesta Isles Soiree.” Each month, a different home in the community hosts a cocktail party for the other residents.

“It’s kind of nice — at least you get to know your neighbors,” says Ritenour.

Ritenour graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a bachelor’s degree in botany and biology. While in college, Ritenour’s older brother, Conrad, introduced her to her future husband, Ray. Ritenour says Ray’s smarts (he was an engineering major) and sincere kindness are what attracted her to him. The two began dating after she graduated college; they married a year later in 1950.

Shortly after, Ray took a job with Boeing Co. in Seattle, and the newlyweds relocated to the West Coast. During that time, Ritenour took a job as an assistant on a biology research project at the University of Washington.

A return to Pittsburgh and three children later, Ray was offered a job with an electromechanical research company in Sarasota, and the family settled on Siesta Key, where, at the time, there were few houses and the prices for lots on a canal were affordable. The fact that they could live on the water, have a boat and be so close to the beach was a major appeal.

Ritenour spent the beginning of her time on the Key raising her three children, daughter, Nerine, and sons, Roger and Russell. But given her love of science and biology, it’s not surprising that she also has a green thumb, a passion she shared with Ray, who died in December. He worked in the vegetable garden while she tended to the herbs.

“He always said that if you couldn’t eat it, it wasn’t worth growing,” she said.

Ritenour still tends to her herbs and flowers and weeds the garden that has changed as much as Siesta Key over the last 48 years. She can’t imagine living anywhere else.

“Somebody said, ‘Move near family,’ but I’d rather live here rather than in Virginia because they get all the snow!” she says.