ABSTRACT
McKenney was born in Mishawaka, Indiana, on November 18, 1911, the daughter of John Sidney and Marguerite Flynn McKenney. When Ruth was six, the family moved to Cleveland, where Mrs. McKenney, an ardent Irish Nationalist and schoolteacher, died two years later. Living with the McKenney were Ruth's maternal grandfather and several other family members, who provided her with unending source material for her humorous books. As a child she was plump, smart, and unpopular, in contrast to her attractive sister Eileen, whom she idolized. At age 14, McKenney became an apprentice printer at the O. E. Thomas Print Shop in Cleveland. Her writing career began a few years later when she entered Ohio State University. There she became first a reporter for the Ohio State Lantern, and then campus reporter for the Columbus Dispatch. She dropped out of college in her junior year to chaperone a former roommate through Europe and never graduated.
