[2][3] Shipley was born Ruth Bielaski on April 20, 1885, in Montgomery County, Maryland, the daughter of a Methodist minister.

[11] The Neutrality Act of 1939 restricted travel by American citizens to certain areas and forbade transport on the ships of nations involved in hostilities.

She decides whether the applicant is entitled to a passport and also whether he would be a hazard to Uncle Sam's security or create prejudice against the United States by unbecoming conduct.

"[13] In 1942, she was criticized for issuing a passport to a Polish-American Catholic priest who visited Joseph Stalin to plead for a democratic post-war Poland.

[16] Because of her personal role in issuing passports, many important figures corresponded with and met with her to document their reasons for travel abroad, including W. E. B.

[19] Upon her retirement, an editorial in the New York Times attributed her reputation for "arbitrary" decision to the fact that she had to enforce newly restrictive government policies.

[22] Her decisions to withhold issuance of great numbers of passports were seen as arbitrary, and her actions presented unwarranted difficulties impeding the travel of many U.S.

When she nevertheless insisted on identifying OSS agents by noting "on Official Business" on their passports, Donovan had to get President Roosevelt to reverse her.

[24] Her efforts to deny travel privileges to the children of U.S. diplomats were similarly overridden in the years following World War II.

Senator Wayne Morse called her decisions "tyrannical and capricious" for failure to disclose the reasons for the denial of passport applications.