She was born Ruby Ross Pope in Monticello, Georgia, the eldest daughter of a cotton broker and a descendant of several families prominent in America since Colonial times, including the Washingtons of Virginia and the Carrolls of Maryland.
Her first husband was Wallace Field Goodnow, an engineer from a well-known Cape Cod, Massachusetts family; by him, she had one son, Philip, who died as an infant.
After moving to New York City and later Boston in the early 1900s and using the byline Ruby Ross Goodnow (her first married name), she wrote fiction, poetry, and articles about interior design for The Delineator, a popular women's magazine, where her editor was Theodore Dreiser.
She also wrote a well-regarded series of articles about architecture that became the basis of an equally popular book, The Honest House.
Unfortunately, the undertaking failed due to New York City homeowners not being enamored of interiors inspired by the cutting-edge Wiener Werkstätte.
She also loved brown and white geometric Moroccan rugs, and one of, if not the first to import cotton print designs by Paule Marrot.