Involved in the entertainment industry during her early childhood years, she became known as "Baby Ruth, the World's Most Talented Toddler Tapster."

[9] Employed during her high school years as a cashier at the E.M. Loew Theater in Hartford, she "worked her way through college" at Northwestern University.

[8][11][12] Following her graduation from Northwestern University and subsequent relocation to New York City, Ruth Brooks obtained a job as a staff writer with NBC.

Changing her name two years later to Ruth Brooks Flippen, following her marriage to actor Jay Flippen, her screenwriting credits grew as she solo or co-wrote the screenplays for multiple films during the 1950s and early 1960s,[14][15][16] including several of the Gidget films,[17][18] and then moved to television where she wrote extensively for the series That Girl and other productions.

[26] Diagnosed with heart disease, Flippen died from related complications in Marina del Rey, California on July 9, 1981.