{"id":1430,"date":"2013-09-09T19:10:19","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T19:10:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/womenshistory\/?p=1430"},"modified":"2023-10-24T16:15:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T16:15:09","slug":"ruth-mckenney-1911-1972","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/womenshistory\/2013\/09\/09\/ruth-mckenney-1911-1972\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruth McKenney, 1911-1972"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Ruth McKenney, one-time Akron\u00a0Beacon Journal\u00a0reporter, is best known for her best-selling book,\u00a0My Sister Eileen. Old-time Akronites, however, remember her for herIndustrial Valley, a book that described the struggle between industrialists and workers in Akron during the 1930s.<\/p>\n

Born in Michawaka, Ind., McKenney grew up in East Cleveland, graduating from Shaw High School. At age 14, while working as a printer’s devil, she got her first union card as a member of the International Typographical Union. From there, she was off to Ohio State University. She majored in Journalism and worked part time for theColumbus Citizen\u00a0and International News Service but she never graduated from college. Instead, she lined up a job with the\u00a0Beacon Journal.\u00a0Actually, it was OSU classmate Earl Wilson who suggested the plan.<\/p>\n

McKenney was a popular writer at the\u00a0Beacon Journal. She and Akron just meshed. There was something about the city and its residents she understood. A\u00a0Beacon Journalreporter called it a “deep sympathy for those she considered downtrodden.”<\/p>\n

The readers loved her and her stories – and honors followed. In both 1933 and 1934, the Ohio Newspaper Women’s Association (ONWA) called her the best in the state. As one colleague recalled, “Ruth, whose stories have brought wayward and wandering husbands back to their wives, saved poor children’s dogs from death in the dog pound, and caused food and dollars to find their way into charity baskets\u2026” was a fine writer.<\/p>\n

In 1934, however, she walked away from the\u00a0Beacon\u00a0to join the staff of the\u00a0Newark Ledger\u00a0in New Jersey. But that didn’t last long. McKenney was about to move to New York City and start a new phase of her career.<\/p>\n

In New York City, McKenney worked on her book on the union strife in Akron and sold humorous sketches about the adventures of her sister Eileen to the\u00a0New Yorkermagazine. In 1938, those stories were woven into the tremendously popular book,\u00a0My Sister Eileen. Subsequently, the book was turned into a Broadway play.<\/p>\n

In 1939\u00a0Industrial Valley\u00a0came out to an outcry from Akron community leaders. Akron evangelist Bill Denton urged the Chamber of Commerce to file suit in the federal court, saying the book was full of “profanity, slander and communistic tendencies.” That same year, the book won an honorable mention in the non-fiction category at the American Writer’s Congress.<\/p>\n

McKenney’s other books came in quick succession:\u00a0The McKenney’s Carry On\u00a0(1940);\u00a0Jake Home\u00a0(1943);\u00a0The Loud Red Patrick\u00a0(1947);\u00a0Love Story\u00a0(1950);\u00a0Here’s England; a Highly Informal Guide\u00a0(with husband Richard Branstein) (1951);\u00a0All About Eileen\u00a0(1952);\u00a0Far, Far From Home\u00a0(1954) and\u00a0Mirage\u00a0(1956).<\/p>\n

While achieving tremendous professional success, McKenney experienced a personal life of tragedy. She married Richard Bransten, who wrote under the pen name Bruce Minton, in 1938. Both became Communists. They were ousted from the Communist Party in 1946. The Communist newspaper, the\u00a0Daily Worker, accused the couple of “conducting a factional struggle against the line of the party and its national leadership.” Just before “My Sister Eileen” opened on Broadway, Ruth’s sister was killed in an automobile accident. Bransten committed suicide in London in 1965.<\/p>\n

McKenney moved back to New York City after that. She died there on July 27, 1972. She left a son and daughter and a body of literature and journalism behind.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of the\u00a0Beacon Journal.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

–Kathleen L. Endres<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruth McKenney, one-time Akron\u00a0Beacon Journal\u00a0reporter, is best known for her best-selling book,\u00a0My Sister Eileen. Old-time Akronites, however, remember her for herIndustrial Valley, a book that described the struggle between industrialists and workers in Akron during the 1930s. Born in Michawaka, Ind., McKenney grew up in East Cleveland, graduating from Shaw High School. At age 14, … <\/p>\n

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