RALEIGH - Ruth Stainback Tharrington, 86, died Saturday, March 12, 2011. Funeral service was held Tuesday, March 15, at Brown-Wynne Funeral Home, Millbrook Road, Raleigh. Interment followed at Montlawn Memorial Park in Raleigh.

She was born in Franklin County to the late Jack and Mary Goodson Stainback. She graduated from Epsom High School and the Dorothea Dix School of Nursing, and later attended Duke University, earning her anesthesia degree. After 39 years in the medical profession, she retired from Dorothea Dix in 1983.

She was preceded in death by her first husband, Leslie Stuart Tharrington; their daughter, Carolyn Faye Richardson; second husband, Earl Perritt; one sister and four brothers.

Surviving: sister, Shirley Pace of Henderson; two grandchildren; eight nephews and three nieces.

Condolences may be sent to the family at www.BrownWynne.com.