Ruth Mae Terry (born Ruth Mae McMahon, October 21, 1920 – March 11, 2016) was an American singer and actress in film and television from the 1930s to the 1960s. She claimed her stage name came from

Walter Winchell Walter Winchell (April 7, 1897 – February 20, 1972) was a syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist and radio news commentator. Originally a vaudeville performer, Winchell began his newspaper career as a Broadway reporter, critic and c ...

, who combined the names of two then-famous baseball players,

Babe Ruth George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...

and

Bill Terry William Harold Terry (October 30, 1898 – January 9, 1989) was an American professional baseball first baseman and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Giants from 1923 to 1936 and managed the Giants from 1932 t ...

Early years

Terry was born in

Benton Harbor, Michigan Benton Harbor is a city in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is 46 miles southwest of Kalamazoo and 71 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. According to the 2020 census, its population was 9,103. It is the smaller, by population, of ...

, the daughter of Irish-American parents, Mr. and Mrs. M. E. McMahon. She attended St John's Catholic School in Benton Harbor. Terry won a number of prizes for singing before singing with the Paul Ash Theater Orchestra at the age of twelve. At that same age, she left her hometown to sing with Clyde McCoy's orchestra.

Career

Terry's first movie was '' Love and Hisses'' in 1937 with

, at which time she was earning $400 per week. Her first

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US * Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that i ...

was ''

Call of the Canyon ''Call of the Canyon'' is a 1942 American Western film directed by Joseph Santley and starring Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, the Sons of the Pioneers, and Ruth Terry. Based on a story by Maurice Rapf and Olive Cooper, the film is about a singi ...

'' with

Gene Autry Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...

. She appeared in several

Roy Rogers Roy Rogers (born Leonard Franklin Slye; November 5, 1911 – July 6, 1998) was an American singer, actor, and television host. Following early work under his given name, first as co-founder of the Sons of the Pioneers and then acting, the rebra ...

movies. Her best-known movie was '' Pistol Packin' Mama'', based on the song of the same name with Robert Livingston. She retired when she married her second husband in 1947. While making films, Terry continued her singing career in a limited way. On August 15, 1943, she appeared as guest female singer on ''

The Bob Crosby Show ''The Bob Crosby Show'' can refer to either of two television programs in the United States. One was broadcast in the afternoons on CBS September 14, 1953 – August 30, 1957. The other was broadcast in prime time on NBC June 14, 1958 – Sept ...

'' on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

radio.

Personal life

On June 20, 1942, Terry and test pilot John Martin eloped and were married in Las Vegas, Nevada. On October 25, 1947, she married John P. Gilmour, a Canadian. A November 8, 1947, article in her hometown newspaper, ''The News-Palladium'', reported, "She has given up her career as an actress and she and her husband and her four-year-old son by a previous marriage will make their home at St. Genevieve de Pierre Fonds, Quebec." Terry was a Republican who supported Dwight Eisenhower in the 1952 presidential election.

Death

Terry died on March 11, 2016 at the age of 95. She was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City).

Filmography

References

External links

* *
Ruth Terry
at the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Lead ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Terry, Ruth 1920 births 2016 deaths Actresses from Michigan American film actresses American women singers 20th-century American actresses Michigan Republicans California Republicans 21st-century American women Burials at Forest Lawn Cemetery (Cathedral City)