Ruth Blount Fentress, 86, who spent decades tracing the history of her own and other North Carolina families, died Sept. 8 at the Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis after a heart attack.
Her death was confirmed by her niece, Cyndy Arthur-Rankin.
Mrs. Fentress became interested in genealogy when she was in her 30s. A charter member of the Order of the First Families of North Carolina, she was a contributor to publications including the Greene County Heritage Book.
Mrs. Fentress was a member of the Jamestowne Society, another genealogical organization.
Ruth Harriette Blount was born in Salisbury, N.C. She was a 1946 graduate of Wake Forest College in Winston-Salem, N.C., where she met Simmons Fentress. They married the year after her graduation.
Read the full obituary in the Septemeber 28, 2011 edition of the Washington Post.
