Ruth Zorens had a saying when it came to clothes, style and fashion: "Even if you feel bad, you don't have to look bad."
From Mrs. Zorens, her three sons and three daughters learned the importance of proper attire and the need to create an individual personality. Wear what becomes you, she said, not because it's a featured item or seasonal hit.
"She taught me how to dress professionally, how to dress with style and she impressed upon me to look good, to be set apart from everyone else," said Mike Zorens, a son from Houston. "She didn't want me to buy clothes that she saw everybody else wear."
It didn't hurt that Mrs. Zorens worked at the downtown Rich's department store, and later at the Greenbriar Mall location, for 20 years. When Federated Department Stores acquired Rich's and later merged it with Macy's, she still referred to the chain as Rich's. She retired in 1984.
In 2000, Ruth McCown Zorens moved from Riverdale to Douglasville to be near family. Until she fell last year, escalating her dementia, she resided in Sweetwater Springs, an assisted-living facility in Lithia Spring. She died Friday from health complications at the Presbyterian Village, a nursing home in Austell. She was 96.
A funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Monday in the chapel of Whitley-Garner at Rosehaven Funeral Home in Douglasville.
Mrs. Zorens was born in Anderson, S.C., as one of six siblings, now all deceased. She lived in the community until she signed up for a three-year military stint during World War II. She married the late James L. Zorens, a career military man, and they lived at various posts before settling in Atlanta. He died in 1984.
Mrs. Zorens was all about fashion and enjoyed working the sales floor, helping women select the proper attire, right color, cut and style.
"She dressed with class and liked pastels, pinks and blue," said Laura Hill, a daughter from Douglasville. "All six of her children inherited her sense of style."
In her later years, her children saw to it that she continued to dress fashionably. With the financial means, they kept her in top-tier outfits.
"Even in assisted living and the nursing home, people always commented on her clothes," Mrs. Hill said. "She'd let me know if what I picked out was right or wrong for her."
For a Sunday evening viewing, the family had Mrs. Zoren dressed in a long royal blue woman's suit with a tailored collar and jacket. She wore it to a grand daughter's wedding.
"We are very proud of how she looks and the beauty she exudes," her son added. "She always had a fashion class and style that was very unique. It was something you can't teach. Just innate."
Additional survivors include two other daughters, Nancy Walker of Atlanta and Linda Reno of Emerald Isle, N.C.; two other sons, Jim Zorens of Douglasville and and Danny Zorens of Tyrone; and eight grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.
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