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Obituary: Ruth Harriet Brenden Kraenzel

Posted at 10:42 AM, Sep 10, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-10 12:48:53-04

Ruth Kraenzel

March 3, 1928 – August 22, 2018

Ruth Harriet Brenden Kraenzel was a native Bozemanite, born at the family’s Baxter Lane farmhouse during a raging spring blizzard. Parents, O.A. and Harriet Brenden, soon moved to their new place on Huffine Lane where Ruth and her six siblings were raised. As a child, she helped O. A. plant the dense windbreak of spruce that still shelters the home place on the south side of the highway, now at the edge of town. Growing up during the Depression, Ruth helped with the farm work as soon as she was able. As a teen, she drove the truck to bring their wartime crop of peas to the cannery.  Ruth and her younger siblings attended the one-room Rae schoolhouse; she graduated from Gallatin High School and attended Montana State College in Home Economics.

In the late forties, Ruth moved to Los Angeles where she married Clive Murdoch and her daughters, Bonnie and Nancy, were born. When the marriage ended, Ruth returned to her hometown where she worked as a legal secretary and for the banks. She met and married Kenneth Slaght and son, John, arrived. That marriage ended, and Ruth met the man she would spend the next fifty years with, Jim Kraenzel.

Work took Ruth and Jim back east and then to California where Ruth worked in the world of film production, even hosting her own program interviewing arts and culture notables in the San Francisco Bay Area and being elected President of the Bay Area Chapter of American Women in Film and Television. When they moved to the Sierra mountain community of Groveland, CA, and bought the Charlotte Hotel, Ruth found the calling that would unleash her quick mind and extraverted spirit. She managed their historic hotel and restaurant from 1985-2003, becoming fully engaged with the cultural life of Groveland, from creating memorable food and social events at the hotel to volunteering with the library and historical society. Ruth and Jim returned to Bozeman in 2010, retiring to their home with a view of the beloved mountains.

Ruth was pre-deceased by her daughter, Nancy Johnson (Groveland, CA); and her brothers, Richard and Bob Brenden of Bozeman. She is survived by her husband, Jim Kraenzel; daughter, Bonnie Murdoch (Calgary, Canada); son, Dr. John Slaght (Ojai, CA); and siblings, Betty Wolfrum (Spokane, WA), Barbara Jensen (Bozeman, MT), Patricia Allen (Spokane, WA), and Jim Brenden (Helena, MT); grandchildren, Chaz Murdoch (Groveland, CA), Aidan Doan (Calgary, Canada), Jessica Slaght (New York City), and Meryn Slaght (Ventura, CA); great-grandsons, Trystan and Leyton Doan-Nou (Calgary, Canada); and many treasured nieces and nephews.

Arrangements are in the care of Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service.  www.dokkennelson.com