Ruth Ingram was born in Scarsdale, New York in November 1928. Ingram was 13 years old when the war broke out and has good memories regarding how she found out about the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Her father worked in a bank on 5th Avenue and was able to provide for the family during the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. Her mother was a homemaker. She recalled how her high school did things like canning fat. She also has memories regarding how people participated in rationing and other efforts to support the war production. Her family was Republican and did not suffer as badly as others when President Roosevelt died [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States. He was a Democrat and died in April 1945.]