Ruth Perry Kent

Mamie Ruth Perry Kent, "Ruth", 87, passed on to her heavenly home on Tuesday, September 23, 2025, at her home in Silver Spring, MD, after a struggle with pancreatic cancer. Ruth was born December 23, 1937, in Baltimore, Maryland, to Green Edward Perry and the former Mamie Nora Batts, both of Tarboro, North Carolina. She graduated from Baltimore City Public Schools in 1954, from Harlem Hospital School of Nursing in 1960, and with a BSN from the University of Maryland in 1970. Ruth served as a nurse for 49 years, 27 of them in the Baltimore City Health Department as a Senior Public Health Nurse.
Ruth married Arthur R. Kent, on January 27, 1969, with a formal wedding the following May. She fulfilled a multitude of roles in church and community, including nursing union president, elections judge, foster parent, youth leader, choir member, Experience Corps volunteer, and political/civil rights campaign worker.
A person of deep and steady Christian faith since early childhood, Ruth was also a compassionate person and a great listener, and many younger folks looked to her as a "mother" or guide and comforter in times of need. Ruth always said, "to have friends you need to be a friend." Wherever she has lived and traveled, from Maryland to New Hampshire, to California, to Florida, to North Carolina, she has made many friends, and, then kept them as friends for decades. Ruth has also, always and deeply, loved spending time with her children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and cousins. She also loved spending many hours talking on the telephone with all her friends. Since retirement she has pursued hobbies in painting, quilting, knitting, and crocheting, (and in teaching others her skills) and has donated countless products to family, friends, hospitals, churches, and the homeless.
Her siblings Marian Bailey and Edward Perry pre-deceased her, but she leaves behind her sister Alma Queen, as well as her husband of 56 years, Art, her three children and their spouses, Mikal Breckenridge, Martin Kent (Terri), and Kimberly Santoro (Mark), her six grandchildren (Nicholas and Jason Kent, and Samantha, Sequoia, Jackson, and Angelina Santoro), and multitudes of nephews, nieces, cousins, and friends. We will never forget her love. Her celebration of life service took place on October 11 at Rainbow Family Christian Center, Silver Spring.

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