Jean Rudacille, a State of Maryland human resources administrator, dies

Jean Rudacille, a State of Maryland human resources administrator and cross-country traveler, died of congestive heart failure Dec. 15 at her Perry Hall home. She was 91.

Born in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, she was the daughter of Alphonse Milito and Amelia Carricato. She moved with her parents to Baltimore in the early 1940s and settled on West 28th Street in Remington. Both parents worked at the Bethlehem Steel shipyards during World War II. The family later settled in Dundalk on Liberty Parkway.

She attended SS. Philip and James and St. Rita schools and was a 1952 graduate of the old Seton High School on Charles Street. She was a member of the Roman Catholic Legion of Mary.

She initially found clerical work at the Bethlehem Steel Sparrows Point plant but disliked the experience. She then joined the office staff of United Steel Workers Local 2610 on Dundalk Avenue.

She met her future husband, Ralph Lee “Rudy” Rudacille, at the Keystone Lounge on Holabird Avenue. They eloped to Virginia in October 1957. When her future husband told his parents they were eloping, they said, “We’ll go along too.” Also in the wedding party was the groom’s youngest brother, Roger Rudacille.

She then became an office worker for the State of Maryland in its old Office of Personnel in the State Office Building complex on Dolphin Street. She moved within the Maryland government, working for the Department of Transportation in Annapolis before taking a job at the newly opened Francis Scott Key Bridge toll facilities building in 1977.

She hired toll takers and ran state workers’ benefits before retiring in 1992.

Although she and her husband divorced in 1962, they remarried in 1970 at a Las Vegas wedding chapel.

Her daughter Deborah Rudacille said, “She was ahead of her time in many ways — a single working mother when that was unusual. She had gay and Black friends with whom she socialized in the 1950s. She loved to travel, both with and without my dad. We took extended road trips – to Las Vegas, to New Orleans, Montreal and Niagara Falls.”

They often traveled in a new Plymouth Fury the family nicknamed “Old Paint.”

“After she retired, she and my dad traveled extensively in Europe (London, Paris, Prague, Vienna, Budapest) and in the U.S., including Alaska and Hawaii. In her final years, she loved traveling to New York City and Los Angeles to visit her grandchildren,” her daughter said.

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Her son, Jeff Rudacille, said, “My biggest memory is how after I divorced, she moved in with me. I was still an over-the-road trucker, and she really helped me maintain a stable family with my daughters.”

She was the matriarch of her family and drove her six grandchildren around in a red Buick. She was a fan of pop culture and followed classic films.

“She was a devoted Democrat and progressive,” her daughter said.

Survivors include her daughters, Deborah Rudacille, of Baltimore; a son, Jeff Rudacille, of Perry Hall; six grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1999.

Services were held Dec. 23.

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