In 1958, she received a Tony Award nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance as Eleanor Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello, opposite Ralph Bellamy.

In January 1970, the American Broadcasting Company launched its new soap opera All My Children, created by Agnes Nixon.

Agnes Nixon had always intended for her soap opera to deal with important issues of the day, so to facilitate Richard Hatch exiting the role of Phil Brent his character was drafted into service.

[citation needed] Ruth became an anti-war protester and made some of the first anti-Vietnam speeches aired on American daytime television.

The audience saw Phil being hit by a bullet and going down, then carried away by a young Vietnamese boy (played by the adopted son of a friend of Nixon).

A problem arose when Tad's father, Ray Gardner, arrived in town wanting money and filed a lawsuit to stop the adoption proceedings.

Negotiations with the producers of the program broke down, and the role of Ruth Martin was recast with Lee Meriwether taking on the character in 1996.

After another year, Fickett decided to call it quits from the busy schedule of soap opera acting and retired in December 2000.

[citation needed] In 2007, Fickett moved in with her daughter, Bronwyn Congdon, in Colonial Beach, Virginia, where she remained bedridden.