Ruth Wales du Pont

Ruth Wales du Pont (June 10, 1889 – November 7, 1967) was an American socialite, philanthropist, amateur classical composer, and spouse of Henry Francis du Pont, who founded Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library. Early life and family Ruth Wales was born in the wealthy New York suburb of Hyde Park on June 10, 1889, the only child of Edward Howe Wales and Ruth Holmes Hawks Wales. 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. Her paternal grandfather was New York City Parks Commissioner Salem Howe Wales, while her maternal uncle by marriage was US Senator Elihu Root. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was her neighbor and later attended her wedding. She boarded at the elite preparatory Miss Spence's School from the age of 12, where she excelled academically. 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. 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. In her early twenties, her father escorted her on a tour of England and France, where she received a tour of the royal stables from Rosa Lewis, a former cook and King Edward VII's mistress, whom Ruth declared "one of the most fascinating women I have ever met." In the same letter, however, she wrote approvingly of the British class structure, which "certainly keeps people in their place . . . no overlapping of the classes." Marriage and children