Phyllis M. Ruoff | Retired nurse, 71

Phyllis Marshall Ruoff, 71, of Broomall, a retired nurse and an admirer of Winston Churchill, died of renal failure Wednesday at home.

For 31 years before retiring in 1994, Mrs. Ruoff was a nurse at Haverford Community Hospital, now known as Mercy Haverford. She previously worked as a nurse at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Mrs. Ruoff grew up in Pleasantville, N.J. and graduated from the Pennsylvania Hospital Nursing School. In March 1961, she set sail for Europe and on the crossing met her future husband, Howard R. Ruoff.

While traveling in England that spring, Mrs. Ruoff became interested in the life of the former prime minister, and eventually amassed a large collection of Churchill books and memorabilia. For more than 20 years, she was a member of the International Churchill Society, and was a founder and secretary of its Philadelphia chapter.

Mrs. Ruoff studied art at the Barnes Foundation and was a docent at the Brandywine Museum and Winterthur.

When she developed heart failure five years ago, she inspired her daughter Beth, a public relations executive, to develop a red-dress symbol to advocate heart-disease awareness among women. In February 2004, Mrs. Ruoff and other women with the disease visited the White House to see President Bush sign a proclamation declaring February as American Heart Month.

In addition to her husband of 45 years and her daughter, Mrs. Ruoff is survived by daughters Karen Brown and Jennifer DiFelice, and five grandchildren.

A funeral will be at noon today at St. Mark's United Methodist Church, 2220 S. Sproul Rd., Broomall. Friends may call after 10:30 a.m.