Ruth Akin; Led Charity Events
Ruth Wallace Akin, known in Southern California as Mrs. Alfred D. Davey, a philanthropist who founded Los Angeles’ Visiting Nurse Assn. in 1939, has died in Sonoma. She was 86.
Mrs. Akin died May 23 of complications from old age, her granddaughter, Jeanie Akin Cunningham, said Saturday.
A Detroit native, she came to Los Angeles with her family in 1919 and was educated at Westlake School and at Dana Hall and Pine Manor School in Wellesley, Mass.
After her marriage to Davey, she devoted herself to charitable fund-raising, working through Junior League and Las Madrinas and opening the Daveys’ Fremont Place home for fund-raising parties. The nursing group she set up and funded provided in-home care to poor families with newborns, the elderly and chronically ill.
Mrs. Akin also wrote poetry and short stories for magazines and newspapers, including the now defunct Los Angeles Herald Examiner. Her “Seven Flags of Sonoma,” a play about the history of the city where she lived in her later years, is still performed annually in Sonoma.
In addition to Mrs. Cunningham, Mrs. Akin is survived by a grandson, Caleb Akin; three stepchildren, four step-grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Her family has requested that any memorial contributions be sent to Friends in Sonoma Helping (FISH) or to Sonoma Meals on Wheels.
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