Ruth Wales du Pont

Her father was a stockbroker, Theodore Roosevelt aide, US Navy Reserve commodore, and philander who preferred to stay in Washington, D.C. Ruth grew up in Hyde Park with her grandmother and mother, to whom she was very close.

[1][2] Vivacious and gregarious, Wales grew up as a socialite who mingled with elite East Coast families and "generally kicked up her heels" at Southampton, Bar Harbor, Watch Hill, Providence, and New York.

[1] Every summer she sojourned at the luxury resort village of Southampton on Long Island, where her grandfather, Salem Howe Wales, maintained a lakeside mansion called Ox Pasture.

Nine years her elder, H. F. was introverted and socially awkward, happy to spend his days raising cattle, collecting antiques, and running the family estate in Winterthur near Wilmington, Delaware.

His beloved mother had died while he was in college, and he had a difficult relationship with his irascible and domineering father, former US senator and colonel Henry Algernon du Pont (1838–1926).

[2] In contrast to her husband, Ruth had little interest in farming or gardening and preferred to sojourn at their Park Avenue apartment in Manhattan, where she could enjoy New York's society and cultural amenities.

She composed a chorus for a ragtime, one organ sonata, at least one waltz, one berceuse, four dances, fugues (all but one of which she lost at a railway station), and the introduction and first act of an opera she called A New England Romance, based on the novella Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton.

Ruth also produced original songs and scores for some of her favorite poems, including Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Night Rider" and "Home from the Hill.

She considered FDR "a traitor to his class" and in 1936 "made so vitriolic a speech in support of Alfred Landon, the Republican candidate, that one Winterthur resident in the audience said it was sure to gain votes for Roosevelt.

[6] Alexander Ames and Devon Ennis (2019) have argued that "Ruth Wales du Pont is an underrepresented figure in Winterthur’s history as it is shared with visitors today."

"[13] However, in 2020, an exhibit at Winterthur Museum recounted Ruth's life and featured various objects belonging to her, including her sheet music collection and a recreation of her wedding dress.