- Her fight for musicians' rights and royalties in 1987 led to the founding of the Rhythm and Blues Foundation. She was inducted as a Pioneer Award recipient in its first year, 1989. In 1993, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as "The Queen Mother of the Blues".
- Willis Conover, a local Washington disc jockey, caught her act and recommended her to Atlantic Records, but Ruth was unable to audition for the company due to a serious car accident that resulted in a nine-month hospital visit. In 1948, however, the record talent caught her act in a club and convinced her to switch from ballads to rhythm and blues.
- Blanche Calloway, Cab Calloway's sister, and also a bandleader, arranged a gig for Ruth at a Washington nightclub called Crystal Caverns and soon became her manager.
- Best known in films for her role as Motormouth Maybelle in John Waters' musical comedy Hairspray (1988).
- During the 1960s, she drifted away from her career to become a housewife and mother, and only returned to music in 1975 at the urging of Redd Foxx, followed by a series of film and television outings.
- In the 1960s, after three disastrous marriages, her career flagged and she was forced to support herself and her two sons as a teacher's aide, a bus driver and a housekeeper.
- Aunt of rapper Rakim.
- Ranked #60 on VH-1's 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll (1999).
- She had a Top 25 hit on the US Pop charts in 1957 - "Lucky Lips" on Atlantic Records.
- Had an out-of-wedlock son by Clyde McPhatter: singer Ronn David McPhatter.
- She was scheduled to film the crime drama Honeydripper (2007) with Danny Glover at the time of her death.
- Following her sudden death, she was interred at Roosevelt Memorial Park in Chesapeake City, Virginia. She passed away on November 17, 2006, two months from what would have been her 79th birthday on January 12, 2007.
- A small-town Southern girl, she first began singing in churches and segregated nightclubs and USO shows.
- Won Broadway's 1989 Tony Award as Best Actress (Musical) for "Black and Blue", a performance she recreated in the television version of the same title, Black and Blue (1993).
- Some of her better known hits: "So Long" (1949); "Teardrops from My Eyes" (1950) (one of her biggest that earned her the name "Miss Rhythm"), "I'll Wait for You" (1951); "I Know" (1951); "5-10-15 Hours" (1953); "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean" (1953); "Oh What a Dream" (1954); "Mambo Baby" (1954); and "Don't Deceive Me" (1960).
- Inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame (1992), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1993), the Virginia Musical Museum's Virginia Music Hall of Fame (2013), and the National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame (2017).
- Has one grandson.
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