Ruth Ann Buckley of Aquebogue died Nov. 17, 2018 at Kanas Center for Hospice Care in Quiogue from complications due to Spinocerebellar Ataxia. She was 50 years old.
Born in Greenport on Aug. 10, 1968 to Fred A. and Barbara (Betic) Kaffke, she was a 1986 graduate of Riverhead High School and SUNY Cortland in 1990.
In October 1994 she married Timothy F. Buckley of Wading River at the Jamesport Congregational Church in Northville.
A life-long East End resident, she moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in 2011 and returned to the North Fork in 2017 upon the sudden death of her husband on Sept. 29, 2016.
Ruth worked briefly for New York State as a court officer before starting her family. She had been a communicant of St. Isidore R.C. Church in Riverhead and a volunteer member of the Riverhead Town Volunteer Ambulance Corps.
She is survived by her daughters, Kaitlin Buckley of Conway, South Carolina, Bridget Buckley and Elizabeth “Lizzie” Buckley, both of Aquebogue, and by her sister and Nancy (York) Blank of South Jamesport.
In addition to her husband, she was predeceased by her parents, her brother Fred A. Kaffke, Jr. and her sister Susan A. Kaffke Knopp.
The family will receive visitors on Tuesday, Nov. 20, 2018 at DeFriest-Grattan Funeral Home in Mattituck, from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m.
Funeral services will be held at the funeral home on Wednesday, Nov. 21 at 9:30 a.m. with Deacon Michael Bonocore of St. Isidore R.C. Church officiating.
Interment will follow at Calverton National Cemetery.
Memorial donations may be made to the National Ataxia Foundation, 600 Highway 169 South, Suite 1725, Minneapolis, MN 55426 or East End Hospice- Kanas Center, P.O. Box 1048, Westhampton Beach, NY 11978.