Ruth Wightman

Ruth Wightman was an American screenwriter and race car driver who was married to the novelist Gouveneur Morris.

Ruth Wightman
Born
Ruth C. Wightman

August 15, 1897
Jamestown, New York, USA
DiedApril 19, 1939 (aged 42)
Alameda, New Mexico, USA
OccupationNovelist, screenwriter
Spouse(s)Gouverneur Morris (m. 1923)

Biography

Ruth, an only child, was born in Jamestown, New York, to John Wightman and Lulu Russell.

Ever the adventurer, she had a passion for flying, and was noted as being one of the first women in the United States to be granted a pilot's license.[1] She also competed in car races in Stockton, California, as a young woman, and was involved in a fatal crash in 1918.[2]

In 1923, she married author Governeur Morris, for whom she had formerly worked as a secretary before beginning a career in the scenario department at Samuel Goldwyn Studio.[3] The pair kept their marriage out of the newspapers for a year, as Morris was still waiting to be granted a divorce from his first wife, Elsie; they then held a second marriage ceremony to seal the deal and comply with California law.[4]

Wightman died at a sanitarium in Alameda, New Mexico, in 1939 after a brief illness.[5] She was survived by her husband; the pair had no children.

Selected filmography

References
  1. "Late Deaths". The Casper Star-Tribune. 20 Apr 1939. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  2. "Woman Auto Racer Killed; Five Other Persons Hurt". The New York Tribune. 4 Mar 1918. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  3. "Writers Will Eschew Golf on Second Honeymoon". The Evening Sun. 28 Jul 1924. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  4. "Man Weds Wife". The Morning Register. 27 Jul 1924. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  5. "Obituary: Wife of Noted Writer". The Daily News. 20 Apr 1939. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
  6. "Screen Plays". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 20 Aug 1922. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
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