Born and raised in Chatham, Ruth Grant first ventured into a bowling centre at fifteen and has been hooked on five pin bowling for over sixty years.

While her first instructor was Bill Whitehall, who owned a centre known as The Recreation, it was Alex Feldman, the owner of Bowl-O-Drome Lanes in Chatham, who first recognized that Ruth had the talents to become a tournament bowler. Alex entered Ruth in a tournament in Windsor and, luckily, Ruth won by just one pin. For her slim victory, the diminutive Ruth advanced to Toronto and bowled at the Sportsman’s Show. At this provincial showcase, Ruth saw the top bowlers, such as Hall of Famers, Bea Milton, Vera Ward, Mabel McDowell, Theda Procher and Doris Luke, all who hailed from more active five pin centres such as Toronto and Hamilton. However, Ruth quickly showed that she could bowl with the best and qualified for the Sportsman Show from 1954 to 1956. From a subsequent trip in 1959, Ruth advanced to O’Connor Bowl and a spot on the Ontario ladies team that competed for the Canadian Championship in Vancouver.

While Ruth was undoubtedly the finest lady bowler in western Ontario, the top competition was always down the road toward Toronto. All events tournaments were a popular destination and Ruth and Norm, her husband for 50 years, travelled to them all. She won aggregate titles at Oshawa, Waterloo and Peterborough while bowling in both singles and doubles events.
As organized bowling reached western Ontario, Ruth was a local representative for the Ontario Bowlers Council and, for a time, held the five game record score with a score of 1639.

Ruth was no stranger to television and qualified on two occasions. While she defeated Hall of Famer Dot Peppin on one show, Ruth remembers her second appearance against another Hall of Famer, Lea McBeigh. While leading after four games, Ruth proceeded to pick an unbelievable nine head pins in the final game to lose the match.

In 1966, Ruth’s bowling talents won her a trip to the Bahamas in the province-wide Players Bowling Festival. Despite the pins over average format, Ruth prevailed in the three game final.
When the bowlers took over the provincial Open in 1965, Ruth was a perennial representative. Until her retirement due to ill health in 1982, Ruth qualified 11 times and coached on one other occasion. Predominantly in the singles, Ruth’s best finish was a second to Diane Black of Niagara at Peterborough in 1969.

Unfortunately, Ruth was unable to display her ability in the Master Bowlers’ Association as her weekends were fully booked through her talents as a hairdresser and owning the Bobette Salon in Chatham.

Still active at age 78, Ruth can still manage a game of golf and, these days, living in Chatham is a benefit, both with its slower pace and also milder climate.