Ruth Easton; Broadway Star, Benefactor

Ruth Easton, a former Broadway stage and radio star and a benefactor of her native Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Easton, who inherited her money from her two businessmen brothers, performed on Broadway in the 1920s and ‘30s before moving to Los Angeles, where she was a featured guest on “The Rudy Vallee Hour,” “The Fleischmann’s Yeast Hour” and many other network radio shows. Over the years she worked with Ethel and Lionel Barrymore, Clark Gable, Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor. In January, Easton presented the Ordway Music Theatre in St. Paul with a small initial gift to set up the Ruth Easton Fund, the balance of which was to come from her private trust fund after she died. The total could be worth more than $4 million, Easton’s Minneapolis attorney, Thomas A. Keller, said at the time. In St. Paul on Monday.