TUCSON, Ariz. -- Ruthmary Copeman Ronstadt, mother of singer Linda Ronstadt and member of a pioneer Arizona family, died Thursday. She was 67.
Mrs. Ronstadt died at Tucson Medical Center following a battle against lung cancer.
Her son, Peter, appointed last year as the city's police chief, said there would be no funeral services in accord with his mother's wishes.
A native of Flint, Mich., she married Gilbert Ronstadt in 1937, two years after moving to Tucson to study mathematics at the University of Arizona. Gilbert Ronstadt's father was Fred Ronstadt, a territorial pioneer who moved to Arizona in 1882 before statehood, worked as a carriage builder and established a Tucson hardware business that still bears the family name.
Peter Ronstadt said his mother was active in civic and charity groups 'too numerous too mention' and was an early supporter of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, a desert wildlife park and natural history museum west of the city.
Mrs. Ronstadt is survived by her husband, Gilbert, daughters Linda Ronstadt and Gretchen Jacome of Tucson, sons Peter and Michael Ronstadt, both of Tucson; a sister, Elizabeth Gerlach, Lapeer, Mich.; and six grandchildren.
