Youthful portrait of Ruth Snyder

The woman who would later outrage the world was born in the late 1890s to two Scandinavian immigrants to the U.S. Her mother had been born Josephine Anderson in Sweden.  Her father, Harry Sorenson, came from Norway.  Sorenson would change his name to Brown because he wanted a last name that would not give away his origins.  As his daughter would years later, he wanted a name that seemed “American.”  He had been a sailor but, to placate his wife and support his family, gave up the sea for life as a carpenter.  The change left him perpetually disgruntled and longing for the freedom and adventure of a sailor’s life.

Harry Brown made a respectable living, but his wages were meager. Frugality was a requirement for a family that consisted of Ruth, an elder brother, and Josephine.  Ruth yearned for nice – but unattainable -- things throughout her childhood.  No, her parents said, they could not afford that blonde doll.  But Ruth was fascinated by the beauty of the doll and went to the store every day just to look through the window at it.  Until it disappeared because someone else bought it.

No, her parents said, she could not have a Shetland pony nor could they afford a wristwatch nor a white bedroom set nor that party dress she so admired.  They could not  take her to the theater. 

However, money was spent on Ruth for her numerous medical problems.  She had epilepsy and often fainted.  She had intestinal surgery at age six. She had an appendectomy a few years later.  The surgery was botched and Ruth Brown was left with various internal ailments in its wake.

The Brown family regularly attended the Methodist Episcopal Church. Ruth prayed each night before bed but later said her faith was not strong.  “I didn’t believe in my inner heart [God] existed,” she said, when recalling her childhood, “but I went through the motions in case I was wrong.”

School afforded Ruth no solace.  She did not have an academic mind and was easily bored by reading, writing, and arithmetic. 

She never had any strong career aspirations.  Her wish was marriage.  She believed that she was suited to be a good wife.  She was a neat, clean housekeeper, quick with a needle and thread, and a fine cook.  A good husband, she believed, would carry her over the threshold into a life of joy, love, and prosperity.  Ruth’s marriage would not be the dull, banal union of her parents.  For one thing, she was a real American, born in a time of  optimism.  She would find a man who would provide her and their children with the finer things in life.

However, she was realistic enough to realize that she would have to get a job while she was single.  A training course at the New York Telephone Company accepted her.  Ruth was assigned to the night shift where she worked for two years until she married Albert. She happily quit New York Telephone.