Ruth Smalley was born in Columbia County, Washington, on September 13, 1920. She received a B.A. degree in English and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Washington State University. Some of Smalley’s major accomplishments include writing a weekly column in the Knoxville News Sentinel for nine years, publishing articles for travel magazines, and writing a series of books on Andrew Jackson, Andrew Johnson, and James K. Polk. Smalley also edited The Good Life Almanac, a project of the Solway community club, and contributed to memoirs by Samuel Sapirie and John Rice Irwin. Ruth Smalley passed away on January 19, 2009, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.