Her parents' marriage dissolved during that period and Pattie moved with her mother to Birmingham to stay with an older sister's family.

[citation needed] Ruffner married Birmingham businessman Solon Jacobs and took advantage of his means to travel and to enroll in voice classes in New York City.

[citation needed] It was after several failed efforts toward improving public schools that Jacobs concluded that women's suffrage was necessary to achieve social reforms through the political process.

"[2][3] Jacobs and her colleagues nearly succeeded in putting a statewide suffrage referendum on the ballot in 1915, but opponents played up fears that giving women the vote would increase the political power of African Americans.

Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt recognized her leadership with appointments to various commissions, such as the Consumer Advisory Board of the National Recovery Administration and as a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Valley Authority.