Ruth Stone, Award Winning Poet Died At 96

Award-winning poet Ruth Stone, who drew imagery and inspiration from the natural sciences, died of natural causes (cancer) at age 96 in Vermont.

She was born Ruth McDowell in 1915, and was the daughter of printer and part-time drummer Roger McDowell. Stone was married at the age of 19 and had moved to Urbana, Illinois, and widowed in her 40s.

Ruth Stone became one of the country's most honored poets in her 80s and 90s, winning the National Book Award in 2002 for "In the Next Galaxy" and being named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for "What Love Comes To."

For 20 years Stone taught creative writing at several U.S. universities, including the University of Illinois, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, the University of California at Davis and Brandeis and finally settled at State University of New York at Binghamton.