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Ruth Danenhower Wilson (1887-1974), a New York society member and author, was an early voice for bettering the lives of African Americans in the armed services and throughout the world. A trained sociologist she was a member of a long line of notables.

These include her ancestor American Revolutionary patriot George Dannehauer (1717-1795). Her grandfather was William Weaver Danenhower (1820-1894), who served in Abraham Lincoln’s administration and was a Washington, D.C., real estate tycoon. She father was Lt. John Wilson Danenhower(1842-1887), who served as navigator of the USS Jeannette Arctic naval expeditionhttp://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/ev-1880s/jeannett.htm. Her brother Lt. Sloan Danenhower (1885-1967), who commanded the submarine Nautilus in the icy Artic waterwww.ussnautilus.org/.

A Vassar graduate, Oswego (NY) Palladium Times, March 11, she was the mother of Sloan Wilson(1920-2003), author of “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit,” 11 other novels and 2 nonfiction works.

She was the grandmother of David Sloan Wilson, (born 1949) is an American evolutionary biologist and a Distinguished Professor of Biological Sciences and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He is a son of the author Sloan Wilson.

She married New York University journalism professor, author and editor Albert F. Wilson(1883-1940) in 1916.

She published three books: “Giving Your Child the Best Chance,” 1924; Jim Crow Joins Up: A Study of Negroes in the Armed Forces of the United States ,“ 1945; and “Here is Haiti,” 1957 <. A “Jim Crow” reviewer for the Council on Foreign Affairs, called the book The hardly happy story of the treatment of American Negroes in our armed forces .

She wrote many articles including “Confederate Flag Wavers,” for the magazine The Crisis in 1952; “ Segregation in the Navy” in The Crisis in 1955; Justifications of Slavery, Past and Present,“ The Phylon Quarterly in 1957; and “The Bulow Plantation, 1821–1835,” Florida Historical Quarterly (1945).

She worked for many years to get Phi Beta Kappa chapters into African-American colleges and documented it for in “Phi Beta Kappa at Howard University (The Negro Liberal Arts College Comes of Age)” in 1953. Her papers were donated to Special Collections, University of Miami Libraries, Coral Gables, Fla. They predominantly consist of a series of lecture notes and typescripts on Japanese culture, history, and language. The other series to be found in the collection is a typescript, titled "Cruising for a Florida State Park," detailing an expedition into Volusia country taken with the aim of discovering historic sites in the county, with accompanying photographs of said sites. Also included is a typescript of an article by John James Audubon titled Although she lived most of her life in Manhattan, she was widely traveled and lived in many locations in the South. Her home at 127 Riverside Drive in Ormond Beach, Fla., was mentioned by Kevin M. McCarthy in his book, “The Book Lovers Guide to Florida,” 1992 (Pineapple Press).# The house was once owned by oilman, (1839-1931)#. It has been listed on the Truilla real estate site as a “single-Family Home located at 127 Riverside Drive, Ormond Beach FL. … has 5 beds, 5 ½ baths, and approximately 6,396 square feet. The property was built in 1948. The average list price for similar homes for sale is $852,662. #

Although her wedding was documented in the New York Times, her later years and death have gone relatively unnoticed except for Social Registers and Who‘s Who publications. She died In .#

Books: “Giving Your Child the Best Chance,” (A.C. McClure & Co.) 1924; “Jim Crow Joins Up: A Study of Negroes in the Armed Forces of the United States,“ (W.J. Clark, revised edition, 1945). “Here is Haiti,” (New York, Philosophical Library, 1957)

Articles: “The Spoiled Child,” McClure‘s magazine, 1922, Vol. 54, page 41 “The Backward Child and the Prodigy.” “The Too Imaginiative Child: “The Bulow Plantation, 1821–1835,” Florida Historical Quarterly 23 (1945): 227. “The Making of an Angler’s Wife, Scribner’s magazine, vol. 65. Charles Scribner’s Sons, NY, 1919. Negro Colleges of Liberal Arts,”The American Scholar, vol 19, page 461 “Confederate Flag-Wavers,” The Crisis, 1952 “Segregation in the Navy,” The Crisis, 1955 “Justifications of Slavery, Past and Present, “ The Phylon Quarterly,1957; Justifications of Slavery, Past and Present Ruth Danenhower Wilson The Phylon Quarterly Vol. 18, No. 4 (4th Qtr., 1957), pp. 407-412 (article consists of 6 pages) Published by: Clark Atlanta University "Musa," The Phylon Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 1 (1st Qtr., 1959), pp. 19-24

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