Anne Rutledge

Anne Malec Rutledge, 87, died Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2022, of cancer. She was born Jan. 1, 1935 in Philadelphia. One of the first New Years’ babies born that year in Philadelphia, she was the youngest of five daughters born to Anna and Anthony Malec, both Ukrainian immigrants, and the first to be born in a hospital instead of at home. Anna Malec also had three children from a previous marriage. Anne’s father died about six months after her birth, leaving her mother to raise the family in their Nicetown home at the height of the Great Depression. Later, in her late teens, she moved into the home of her sister, the late Catherine Slobodzian and Catherine’s husband Joseph, where she became “Nan,” the beloved de facto oldest sister to the four Slobodzian children: Joseph, Jo Anne, Gary and Cathy. She was a steady source of love and laughter in the house, gifts at birthdays and Christmas and a guide to crossword puzzles and the niceties of such card games as 500 Rummy and Crazy Eights, erupting in mock anger and frustration when she lost. Anne was a long-time employee of Nice Ball Bearing Co., working first at the company’s plant at 29th Street and Hunting Park Avenue in Nicetown, and then in Kulpsville, Pennsylvania, after the company was acquired by SKF Bearings in 1977. She retired in the late 1990s. Anne married William F. Rutledge in 1976 and became the stepmother to William’s son, William Jr., and later the loving grandmother of Ryan and Danielle Rutledge. Anne’s husband died five months earlier, on June 16, 2022. Survivors: Ryan and Danielle Rutledge, daughter-in-law Colleen Rutledge; a sister, Helen Kenny; numerous nieces and nephews. A Funeral Mass will be held on Tuesday, November 29, 2022 at 10AM at St. Genevieve Church, 1225 Bethlehem Pike, Flourtown, PA 19031. Relatives and friends are invited to her viewing from 9-10AM at the church. Interment Holy Sepulchre Cemetery.