Ruth Mona Gentry, 77, of Hamilton, Indiana died early Tuesday morning, May 13, 2008, at her residence. She was born Aug. 25, 1930, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to Albert J. and Nellie M. (Walters) Middleton. She married Gerald “Jerry” Gentry on Oct. 13, 1972. He preceded her in death on Aug. 1, 1973.She was a bookkeeper with Yoder Ford in Garrett for 42 years.

In her youth, Mrs. Gentry played professional baseball for the St. Boniface Athletics in Canada. The Chicago Colleens drafted her in 1950. She played there for one year. She then played for the South Bend Blue Sox and the Battle Creek and Muskegon Belles. She was honored along with her league-mates in the Women in Baseball Exhibit at the American Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1988. She was inducted into the Canadian Professional Baseball Hall of Fame June 4, 1998, and also the Manitoba Professional Baseball Hall of Fame.

Ruth was a member of the Hamilton Fish & Game Club where she served as treasurer for over 30 years. She was also a member of the Canadian Legion.

Surviving are two brothers and a sister-in-law, and several nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her best friend, Naomi “Sally” Meier. Services were held at at the Oberlin-Ford Funeral Home & Crematory in Hamilton with the Rev. Eric Stoops officiating. Burial followed in Hamilton Cemetery. Memorials were suggested to Hamilton Fish & Game Club, the American Cancer Society or Parkview Home Health and Hospice.