Ruth Tharp

Ruth Heneberger Tharp, aged 91, a long time resident of Little Rock, departed this life on July 14, 2009 at home. She was born on July 27, 1917 in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, daughter of the late Andrew Ellis Heneberger and Hedvig Stockbridge Heneberger and grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts. As a girl, she took great pleasure in music, beginning with lessons from her Uncle Carl Heneberger, a cellist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and continuing on as a self-taught pianist in later life. Under the influence of her father, a Boston newspaperman, she developed a love of reading and of the English language which she passed on to her two sons. She graduated from Winchester High School in 1935. After completing secretarial school in Boston, she took a job with a Boston nonprofit fund-raising organization. She then moved to New York City, where she took a job with another fund-raiser. In New York, she met and married her husband, Winston Collins Tharp, a musician and songwriter, who was a native of Little Rock. Mr. And Mrs. Tharp moved to Little Rock in 1944.
After Mr. Tharp passed away in 1961, Mrs. Tharp worked for the Frank Lyon Company, followed by KTHV (Channel 11) television station. She then worked for Little Rock City Hall, retiring after 20 years. In retirement, Mrs. Tharp enjoyed volunteer work, reading for the blind, providing pet therapy in hospitals and nursing homes, and doing secretarial work for CARTI and Christ Episcopal Church.
Survivors include her sons, Winston C. Tharp, Jr. and his wife, Patricia Miles, Ellis Tharp and his wife, Brenda Tharp (of the Little Rock-based musical group "Brenda and Ellis") and her grandson, Rick Tharp of North Hollywood, California.
The family wishes to express their thanks to Arkansas Hospice, Brightstar Home Care and especially Nucol for her compassion.
Graveside services will be held on Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 10:00 a.m at Roselawn Memorial Park, 2801 Asher Avenue, with Rector Scott Walters presiding. Memorials may be made to Christ Episcopal Church, 509 Scott St., Little Rock, AR 72201.
Arrangements were made by Little Rock Funeral Home, 8801 Knoedl Ct., Little Rock, (501)224-2200. Mrs. Tharp's online guestbook may be signed at www.littlerockfuneralhome.com.