Ruth Wightman (August 15, 1897 – April 19, 1939) was an American screenwriter and race car driver who was married to the novelist Gouveneur Morris.
Ruth Wightman | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ruth C. Wightman (1897-08-15)August 15, 1897 Jamestown, New York, U.S. |
| Died | April 19, 1939(1939-04-19) (aged 41) Alameda, New Mexico, U.S. |
| Occupation | Novelist, screenwriter |
| Spouse(s) | Gouverneur Morris (m. 1923) |
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.