A native of Dallas and fourth-generation Texan, Ruth was raised in the old Dallas neighborhood of Lakewood. Her father ran a small rental home business that today is a successful real estate management company run by her brothers.
She attended Woodrow Wilson High School, the University North Texas her freshman year and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1975 with a degree in advertising.
After graduation, she returned to Dallas where she worked as an illustrator and art director in several in-house advertising departments such as Sanger-Harris, Joske’s of Texas, The Dallas Times Herald and Dillard’s department stores. She also worked for several advertising agencies such as Saunders Lubinski and White in Dallas.
She raised two children as a divorced mom-Anne and John. She became involved in local Dallas County conservative politics as a volunteer in 2008 after her son graduated from high school. She served on the board of Park Cities Republican Women (PCRW) for five years and as a volunteer for the Dallas County Republican Party. She was awarded the Betty Marquis Service Award by PCRW in 2014 and the Ronald Reagan Volunteer of the Year by the Dallas County Republican Party the same year.
Always having a love for the Texas Hill Country, she bought a home in New Braunfels in 2015 and eventually moved there full time. She became active immediately in New Braunfels Republican Women, New Braunfels Conservatives and the Republican Party of Comal County. She was honored to receive the Jan Kennady Service Award from New Braunfels Conservatives in 2019.
She has two young grandsons in San Antonio. Her daughter, son-in-law and son all live in the area and share her conservative passion and patriotism for Texas and America.
Her father Fred Secker, whose grandmother emigrated through the Port of Galveston in 1872 from Germany, was a life-long Republican and instilled those principals in his daughter from an early age. The bumper sticker on Ruth’s car says “KEEP TEXAS RED.”