Ruth Miriam Siems

Ruth Miriam Siems, 74, the home economist who created Stove Top Stuffing, died at her Newburgh home Nov. 13 2005.

A native of Evansville, she developed the stuffing, one of General Foods Corp.'s (now Kraft Foods Inc.) top convenience products, in 1971 while working at the corporation's White Plains, N.Y., facility.

Her name was the first on a patent application for the product.

Her patent was based on a certain size of bread crumb that makes the rehydration, or addition of water, work. In an interview with The Evansville Courier in 1991, Siems said the idea for the instant stuffing came from the marketing department, but it was up to the research and development staff to create the product.

The test kitchens, the chefs, and all the workers in research and development were given a shot at developing the stuffing, but Siems' idea was the one the company chose.

A graduate of Bosse High School, she earned a degree in home economics from Purdue University in 1953.

She was employed for almost four years in product research ad development at the old Igleheart Brothers plant of General Foods in Evansville, working on quality control for angel food cake mixes and researching the Swans Down brand of cake mixes and flours.

She retired from General Foods Inc. in 1985 after a 33½-year career.

"Everyone always had me pegged as a creative person," she said. "I've always liked to put things together."

Siems also was an active member of the Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, where her father, Werner Siems, had been the school principal for more than 40 years. Her mother, Ruth, was a schoolteacher.

"She was a quiet, competent person, and one you could count on," said the Rev. Thomas Wenig, pastor of the church for the past five years.

At the church, she helped tabulate the weekly offering, played in the hand bell choir in the past and helped with the church's recent capital campaign.

She also was faithful in ministering to a person who had some problems, Wenig said. "She was faithful in trying to keep that person's head above water."

She also paid for two students' education at the University of Evansville.

Steve Okungu graduated in 2002 with a bachelor's degree in political science and his sister, Lilian, graduated in 2004 with a nursing degree. They were the children of a friend from Kenya whom Siems had met while in New York.

"She was a strong believer in helping people who deserved to be helped," said her sister, Suzanne Porter of Copley, Ohio.

When she moved to Newburgh, she purchased the historical Cutteridge-Curtis home. An avid antique buff, Siems collected antique coverlets and had acquired antique spinning wheels and looms, often personally restoring them and using them to make materials for her sewing projects.

Besides Porter, she is survived by a brother, David Siems of Milford, Mich., a sister, Rosemary Snyder of Chicago and nieces and nephews and great-nieces and nephews.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer. Burial will be in Lutheran Cemetery.

Friends may call from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday at Alexander East Funeral Home.