[1][2] Her prediction proved correct upon the face's completion in 1998 and the statue quickly became one of South Dakota's top tourist attractions.
[2][3] She first met Polish American sculptor and artist Korczak Ziolkowski, when she was 13 years old in their native West Hartford.
[1] Ziolkowski designed a huge statue of Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota chief who helped defeat George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.
He acquired Thunderhead Mountain in the Black Hills, located just 17 miles from Mount Rushmore, from the U.S. federal government, as the site for his monument.
[2][4] Ruth Ross arrived at the Crazy Horse Memorial in 1948 with a group of Connecticut youths who had volunteered to help Ziolkowski with the project during his pre-planning stages.
She handled press inquires, staffed their visitors center, and acquired the equipment and materials needed to carve the sculpture.
[2] Korczak Ziolkowski declined financial support from the U.S. federal government, believing that it might offend Native American groups.
[2] In order to raise money during the early years of the project, Ruth Ziolkowski operated a timber mill and a dairy farm.
[2] She utilized the three books of instructions and measurements, which she and her husband had compiled, to continue construction of the Crazy Horse Monument, and took charge of the staff, who included seven of their ten children.
"[2] Ruth Ziolkowski could not provide an exact deadline for the projected completion date, noting the complexities of weather, money and labor needed for the sculpture.
[5] She was survived by nine of her children: John, Dawn, Adam, Jadwiga, Casimir, Mark, Joel, Monique and Marinka; twenty-three grandchildren; and eleven great-grandchildren.
[5] Following her death, Ziolkowski was succeeded as leader of the Crazy Horse Memorial by three equal successors as part of a succession plan: Laurie Becvar, the president and chief operating officer of the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, and two of Ziolkowski's daughters, Jadwiga and Monique.