Ruth Short's descendants: the families of her four daughters

11 October 2026. Jordan asked for the immediate family to be filled out, so that everyone has a page, and in particular the side of Doug Smith, a grandson of Ruth (Short) Ellingwood, who is seeking Canadian citizenship by descent through her (she was born at Woodstock, Ontario, in 1893). Until now the archive had Ruth's four daughters, Ruth, Joyce, Mary Jane and Janet, with their husbands' first names from Cudge's memoir and almost nothing below them. Ruth Short's own sisters, Mary Isabella and Bea, had no children, so her descendants are all through Cudge and Ruth's five children.

This note records what the published obituaries say, how each was tied to the family, and what is still open. The obituaries are summarized in sources/ (kept for the family, since they name living relatives); the children's pages are private.

What was found

Daughter	Husband	Children	Source
Ruth (1923-2020)	Donald Orris Dorman Jr. (1922-2008), wheat rancher of LaCrosse	Gail (Seymour), Nancy (Shank), Glenda (Thie), Marcia (First), Joyce (Christie); 13 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren in 2020	Her obituary, Whitman County Gazette, 8 Oct 2020 (read in full); his Find a Grave memorial (search extract only)
Joyce (1925-2023)	William Edward "Bill" Lee (1914-2006), of Filene's and Sibley's	Janet (Beach), Margaret (Braun), Charlotte, William Richard, Alyson; and Bill's daughter Virginia (Doyle) by his first marriage; 12 grandchildren (10 of them Ruth Short's descendants), 5 great-grandchildren in 2023	Her obituary, Lowther Funeral Home and Vero News, Aug 2023 (read in full); his, Boston Globe, 23 Jul 2006 (search extracts)
Mary Jane (1926-2007)	Philip "Phil" Smith (1925-2018), lighting industry, Centennial, Colorado	Christie (Leon), Greg, Carolyn (Ellingwood), Doug; 5 grandchildren, 8 great-grandchildren in 2018	His obituary, Denver Post, 10 Jul 2018 (search extracts, which agree)
Janet (1928-2019)	William Oliver "Bill" Belmondo (1925-2015), Renton School District	Jeff, Craig, Janet, Brad; 10 grandchildren named, 9-11 great-grandchildren	Both their obituaries, Greenwood Memorial Park, Renton (read in full)

Cudge's obituary (1985) counts 22 grandchildren. Dick's three (Kit, Brook, John), the Dormans' five, the Belmondos' four and the Smiths' four make sixteen, which leaves six for the Lees, the number of children Bill Lee's obituary gives (counting Virginia, his daughter by his first wife).

How each was tied to the family

• The Dormans. Ruth's obituary names her parents, Richard Everett Ellingwood and Ruth Ethelwyn Short Ellingwood, her husband Donald Orris Dorman Jr. and the wedding date, 3 Sep 1946, which is the memoir's. Gail is in the memoir too: the baby on the 1950 trip east, and "Gail Dorman[?] Seymour," married to Steve, students at Washington State (scan 105). Don's memorial agrees with the memoir: shot down in 1944, a prisoner, Washington State 1948, the farm at LaCrosse.
• The Belmondos. Janet's obituary names her parents, Richard Sr. and Ruth Ellingwood, and her sisters and brother. Bill's gives the wedding as 22 June 1952, which settles the memoir's "Hune[?] 22, 1952." The two obituaries name the same four children with the same spouses.
• The Smiths. Phil Smith's obituary names his children Christie Leon, Greg (Margie) Smith, Carolyn Ellingwood (David Bateman) and Doug (Debbie) Smith, and says he was "pre-deceased by his wife of 58 years, Mary Ellingwood Smith" (1949-2007). Greg, Carolyn and Doug are the three children the memoir puts with Mary in 1970 (scan 4; "Greg's bed" at Denver, scan 188); Carolyn goes by Ellingwood; and the age (92 in 2018), the Denver area and fifty years in lighting fit the memoir's Phil, an electrical engineer with Westinghouse who became a manufacturer's representative at Denver. Jordan knows Doug as a grandson of Ruth Short. Taken as proven for Greg, Carolyn and Doug.
• Christie. Named first among Phil's children, but not in the memoir's 1970 visit. Phil's obituary names no wife but Mary, so a stepdaughter is unlikely; perhaps the eldest, grown and away by 1970. The count of Cudge's 22 grandchildren fits her being Mary's. Linked to Mary as probable.
• The Lees. Joyce's obituary (2023) names her parents, "Ruth Short and Richard Everett Ellingwood," her sisters and brother, and her "late husband, William Edward Lee"; Bill's (2006) calls her "Joyce Ellingwood Lee (formerly of Spokane, WA)," his wife of 58 years. The two give the same six children and twelve grandchildren, and Joyce's sets each grandchild under a parent. Virginia "Ginny" Doyle is Bill's daughter by his first wife (the memoir's "six year old daughter Virginia" of 1948); Joyce counted her among her six children. Her children, Trip Nabors and Jennifer Borden, are Bill's grandchildren but not Ruth Short's, and have no pages. The other ten grandchildren have pages: Gregory Keeney (Janet's son); Graham and Diana Turbayne (Charlotte's); Anne, Meg, Mettie and Andrew Lee (Richard's); Margaret, James and Charlotte Hendren (Alyson's). Andrew's daughter Sienna and Charlotte Hendren's daughter Frankie, Ruth Short's great-great-grandchildren, are named on their parents' pages.
• Joyce's death. 13 August 2023 in her obituary; the FamilySearch tree's 16 August is not followed (a contemporary report over a compiled date, as ruled 8 Oct 2026).

What is still open

• Mary Jane's own obituary (Denver area, October 2007). Not found in the searches of 11 Oct 2026.
• The full text of Bill Lee's obituary (legacy.com, which refuses automated reading; known from extracts), and Don Dorman's Find a Grave page. Screenshots would do.
• The grandchildren. The ten Belmondo grandchildren are named in Bill's obituary but not by parent; the Dormans' thirteen and the Smiths' five are not named in anything seen.
• For Doug Smith's citizenship, the records that carry the line from Ruth Short to him: her Ontario birth registration and her 1921 marriage certificate are in the archive; Mary Jane's Madison birth certificate (1926) and her Spokane marriage record (1949) are to fetch.
• Ruth (Ellingwood) Dorman's DAR application. Her obituary says she researched the family and was inducted into the Daughters of the American Revolution: her lineage paper would show which Revolutionary ancestor she proved and on what records.

Searched without result (11 Oct 2026)

• "Joyce Lee" obituaries 2023 with Vero Beach, Spokane, Ellingwood, Sibley's: only unrelated women, until her obituary turned up under "Joyce Ellingwood Lee" at the Lowther funeral home.
• "Mary Jane Smith" obituaries 2007 with Denver, Ellingwood: only unrelated women (a Mary Jane (Palmer) Smith of Denver, wife of Elmer, is Unrelated).
• A Philip Edward Smith of Centennial (1941-2019) is Unrelated.