My Search for Ruth Eileen Mendenhall

*Update towards end-- 5/28/20

Happy Sunday!

Since 2014, I have been researching my great-aunt Ruth Eileen Mendenhall. She is a mystery and it's taken years and years to dig up what I have been able to find about her. 

So, this post is sort of a compilation of all of those previous posts I have already written, dating back to 2014. 

~In June 2014, this is what I knew of Ruth:

Ruth Eileen Mendenhall

born: 16 Jan 1927 in Dayton, Ohio

died: Unknown (rumored- California), age- unknown

Parents: Earl Dwight Mendenhall (1894-1972) & 

             Edna Grace Miles (1894-1934)

Siblings: Harold Earl Mendenhall (1916-1989) (my grandfather)

         Robert Eugene Mendenhall (1919-1993)

So, back then, the rumor in the family was that Ruth was 14 when the family disowned her. My mother always said that she thought she had gotten pregnant and kicked out of the house. Her family supposedly trashed all of her possessions and pictures of her. One picture was found- it had fallen behind a dresser. 

Ruth in her 3rd grade picture, 1935 at Shiloh Springs School in Dayton Ohio. 
Ruth is the girl in the middle row, 4th one from the left.
Look at that mischievous face!! 
(Shiloh Springs School- 5816 North Main Street in Dayton Ohio. It was demolished in Aug 2012)

In the 70's, after Ruth's parents had passed, her brothers tried looking for her. They hired a private investigator who found her living in California, married to a doctor. She didn't want any contact so that was that.

~December, 2016

I had made more discoveries and another post.

One side note- by this time, I had discovered that Ruth's mother's maiden name hadn't been Miles, but Niles. This is VERY important because everything I had found on her ancestry had been wrong! I will remember this for the rest of my life- just shows you how tricky Genealogy can be sometimes! ;)

In September 2016, I made a HUGE discovery for Ruth! Her death date!

Ruth Eileen Breckenridge ('nee Mendenhall)

born: 16 Jan 1926 in Dayton, Ohio

died: 08 Mar 2002 in Scottsdale, Arizona

Ruth was married to Jack V. Breckenridge (1921-2011), a veteran. Now, I don't know if he had been a doctor or not, but they both were living in Arizona at the time of their deaths, not California.  They are buried together in the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, Section A7, Row B, Site 32. I tried to find a newspaper article, an obituary, or SOMETHING, but nothing. It doesn't look like she ever had children. 

~June 2019

A couple of new discoveries.

First, I found several newspaper articles for Ruth- FINALLY.

So, looks like she wasn't a pregnant teen who ran off to California. She was a delinquent. And, it also looks like at 19, she was still living at her parents house. If she HAD been kicked out, which now, I seriously doubt was the case, she was apparently invited back in. 

According to these articles, she was sentenced 1-20 years at Marysville Reformatory for women. I had searched for more articles on her,  but had come up with nothing.

What we know now-

1. Ruth had never been a pregnant teen...if she had, she never had the baby.

2. If Ruth had been kicked out of the house/disowned or whatever, in 1945, she was was living at home, so they must have let her back in.

3. In 1944, Ruth was arrested and charged with Forgery.

4. In 1945, she broke her probation and was sentenced 1-20 years.

Second focus-- Jack Breckenridge- her husband. At the time, I thought I'd try focusing on him and his family to see if I could find anything about Ruth's past.

Jack's middle name was Victor. Jack Victor Breckenridge. He was the son of John R. Breckenridge (1895-1951) & Lillian Johnson (1899-1975). Jack had 3 siblings- Janet Louise (1918-2007), James Harold (1925-2011) & Richard Alan (1928-2016).

At the time, I had found living descendants for his siblings and messaged them on Facebook, asking them if they knew anything about Jack & Ruth, but out of everyone I messaged, nobody responded. I'm wondering if they weren't really social with the family? SHRUG.

Picture of Jack Breckenridge, courtesy of Ancestry.com

~May 2020

Latest developments: 

With us all being in Quarantine because of the Coronavirus, I recently subscribed to Newspapers.com and was able to find one more article on Ruth:

Paroled March 12, 1947

Looks like she served 2 years at Marysville Reformatory for Women in Ohio. I contacted the prison, but turns out they only hold records as far back as the 80s. The older records are housed with Ohio History Connection here. I have been on this site SO many times but haven't been able to locate anything on Ruth. It's terribly frustrating. If she served 2 years, why in the world wouldn't she have records there? 

I've been searching for answers for 6 years...not stopping now! :) 

~May 2020-- UPDATE-- 11 days after post published.

Latest developments: 

I am very happy to say that I FINALLY convinced the prison to look up information for me! (I think they were tired of my constant pestering!) I got the email this morning with Ruth's offender number. It's not a LOT but it's what I need for Ohio History Connection to look up her prison records when the library is once again open! I can't wait!! :)