Sara “Sally” Joyce Ruggles at the age of seventy-eight, passed away on July 9, 2022, at the Regional Hospice Center in Danbury, Connecticut.
Sara Joyce Green, daughter of Arnold H. Green and Anita Starring Green, was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, while her father was being trained as an officer in the newly developed 14th Armored Division, which was deployed to Europe in October 1944 and fought its way through France and into Germany until the end of the war.
Sally grew up on a fruit farm in southwest Michigan which had been in the family since 1913. On her 16th birthday, she was crowned Allegan County Harvest Queen; in 1961, she was crowned Michigan Apple Queen. Sally graduated magna cum laude from Michigan State University in 1965. During a summer study abroad in London, she met Robert Silbernagel. Bob and Sally were married in January 1966 while they were both graduate students at Boston College.
She received her Master's degree in English from Boston College in 1967. They lived in the Boston area for several years before moving to North Salem, New York where they raised their three children: Brian, Andrew, and Kristin. She was an active volunteer in the local schools and her local church. In 1984, Sally and Bob opened Books on the Common in Ridgefield, Connecticut where they shared their love of reading and literature with the community. After Bob died in 1991, Sally continued running the store until she sold the business in 2004.
It was at Books on the Common that she met Rudy Ruggles Jr., a frequent customer at the store. She found him “a bit stuffy” at first, but he won her over by, among other things, “buying the most interesting books!” Over the next 23 years of marriage not only did they share a love of books, but also the joy of exploration. They traveled the world together and shared countless memorable experiences, including being the first Westerners married by nomadic Tuareg tribesman in their Saharan Desert encampment near Timbuktu in Mali, visiting both the North Pole and Antarctica and submerging to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in a Russian research submarine. During those years Sally always returned to her love of books.
Sally is survived by her husband Rudy; her two children Brian Silbernagel (Teresa Snider) and Kristin Bischof (George); four stepchildren, Rudy (Anne), Christopher (Christina), Daniel (Rachel), and Andrew (Marymar) Ruggles; two grandchildren, Lucy Bischof and Robert Bischof; and eight step grandchildren, Lindsey, Thomas, Stefan, Natalie, Fletcher, Elliot, Luna, and Bennett Ruggles. She was predeceased by her first husband Robert Silbernagel and by her son Andrew Silbernagel. A memorial service will be held at The Lounsbury House in Ridgefield at 2:00 PM on Monday August 1st. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to Founders Hall, Ridgefield Visiting Nurses Association, and the Regional Hospice Center.
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