Ruth Ogden Carroll, 96, of New Canaan, CT, passed away peacefully October 8, 2021, at Norwalk Hospital with her family by her side. Ruth was born April 12, 1925, to Howard M. and Esther (Ahearn) Ogden in the family home on Ogden Rd. in New Canaan that stands nearly unchanged today. She spent many happy hours roaming the rural north end of town and passing time in her grandfather Stanley Ogden’s shop on Lukes Wood Rd., where he had a furniture repair and chair caning business. Her father Howard ran the Blue Arrow Garage for many years, reportedly the first service station to sell gasoline in New Canaan. Ruth told many tales of growing up in a far more rural New Canaan which seem like a distant fantasy given what the town has become, a change which she never failed to find both amusing and infuriating. She was a regular volunteer at the New Canaan Historical Society for many years, and was involved with the Sellecks Corners Cemetery Association all her life, working to preserve the cemetery and its 1851 chapel on Barnegat Rd. Ruth married John Otis Carroll in 1967, meeting him while working as the secretary at the Silvermine Arts Center; the two remained happily married until his passing in 2010. Aside from a couple years in the wilderness (Greenwich!) when she was first married, Ruth spent her entire life as a New Canaan resident.
