Hit and run takes out Bothell artist’s hand-painted fence, neighborhood icon

Published 11:46 am Wednesday, January 27, 2016

It was around 10 p.m. on Jan. 19 when the sound of metal smashing into wood shattered the peace in one Bothell neighborhood.

A red pickup truck had plowed straight into Ruth Brumbaugh’s meticulously hand-painted fence. As her neighbor came outside to see what had happened, the driver scrambled free of the damaged section of fence before peeling off into the night in the 22900 block of Meridian Ave South.

A property hit-and-run is a misdemeanor, but this accident damaged a particularly cherished stretch of fencing.

Years ago, the 86-year-old Brumbaugh decided to paint her wooden fence with an intricate brick pattern and hand-crafted images of trees and flowers, trying to spruce up the neighborhood.

“I did put a lot of work into it for the people that drive by,” she said. “It just seems like it’s working against me, and I’ve got where I’m too damned old and shaky to get out there and fix it.”

This isn’t the first time her fence has been hit, around four years ago, a Subaru lost control on the icy road and slid into it, but back then Brumbaugh said, she was able to repaint it.

“I was younger, and I could get out there and paint the brick,” she said.

This time, if nothing changes, she’s planning on hiring a contractor from California to rebuild the fence, but doesn’t plan on painting it.

“The last time we got hit, [the driver’s] insurance people came by and said they couldn’t find an artist that would paint bricks on the fence,” she said.

Brumbaugh is a near life-long artist, who started painting when she was 12-years-old, around the time her family moved from Oklahoma to Washington to find higher paying jobs near the coast during WWII.

Later, she married Henry Paul Brumbaugh, a sniper with the First Special Service Force, an American-Canadian combat group which was the first modern American special forces unit. They were so loathed by the Germans that they adopted the name ‘Black Devils,’ and served everywhere from North Africa, to Italy, France and beyond.

In 2013, the unit was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor as a whole. Henry Brumbaugh passed away around ten years ago, but his son, who was also in the military, ordered a replica of the medal, which Ruth Brumbaugh still keeps.

When they moved into their house around 25 years ago, Brumbaugh said they didn’t have a fence, so men would drive by and yell crude things at her and throw beer cans and bottles, so they decided to build the fence.

“They had nothing else to do but yell slander at me, or anything, throw things at me,” she said.

Brumbaugh said she wanted a brick fence, but was told by assessors that it would raise their property taxes, so she and her husband opted instead for a wooden one, which Brumbaugh took to decorating with a realistic brick patter, trees and flowers.

Her daughter, Jamie Brumbaugh, said people would regularly stop by and compliment them on the fence.

“Everybody knows my mom’s fence,” Jamie said.

Inside her house, various paintings of detailed natural scenes hang from Ruth Brumbaugh’s walls. She also made animal carvings and totem poles with chainsaws, and even traditional wood-burning.

“I would see beautiful things, and I couldn’t take it home with me, so I’d sketch it out,” she said.

When she was younger, she started with chalk, but soon moved on to paint. With only one art class under her belt, Ruth Brumbaugh is largely self-taught.

Though losing the fence is a blow, Brumbaugh said she’s also worried with her neighborhood’s, and the city’s, aesthetic qualities.

“To me, it’s important, and I really don’t have the money to replace my fence,” she said. “I thought it was important to Bothell to make it look nice.”

The truck that hit Ruth Brumbaugh’s fence was described as an older red pickup truck with a roll bar and a muffler problem, and may now have body damage on its left side. Tips about the vehicle can be directed at the Bothell Police Department.