By the time Ruth was 10 years old, her mother and father had divorced and she continued to live in the family home with her mother at 601 West Mountain Avenue. Her father George remarried to Gertrude York and lived two blocks west on Mountain Avenue, continuing to run what became town's only daily newspaper, the Fort Collins Express Courier. Needless to say, relations within the family were strained at best and remained so the rest of their lives.

Ruth was an active and eager participant in group affairs throughout her life. Some idea of teenage life in the mid-twenties can be gained from reciting the mottoes of the student groups of which she was a member. The Girl Reserves stated purpose was, "To help others, to develop forgetfulness of self, to stand for the best in school and community life, to help girls to face life squarely, and to follow Jesus Christ." They had regular meetings, special events and frequent outings in the nearby mountains and river canyons of the foothills and front range of the Colorado Rockies. The Round Table's pledge was, "I will give my word of honor to do my best to live purely, think truly, right wrong and honor God." This group also had regular meetings and numerous events throughout the school year. Ruth was a healthy girl, an above average student and boasted that she never missed a day of school. When a Junior, she was president of the debating society, The Sharks,  and, as a member of the debating team, took part in the inter-school conference debates. She continued this activity throughout her education. From time to time, Ruth worked on her father's newspaper as a proof reader and her brother, who had graduated from Denver University and obtained a master's degree from Columbia worked there as a line-o-type operator.

After graduating from high school in 1925 she entered Colorado State College, as it was then known. The College, a short streetcar ride from her home on Mountain Avenue, had been established in the 1890's and a number of her grandmother McCormick's relatives had attended the same school. She was an active member of the Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority. Ruth had a number friends from her elementary, high school and college days in Fort Collins with whom she corresponded throughout her entire life on a regular basis. Some of them formed a round-robin correspondence group and exchanged letters for nearly 60 years. Her parents and grandparents were all college graduates and good writers and, as was customary in those days, corresponded with family and friends on a regular basis.

After her second year at Colorado State College, her father sent her off to school in Lincoln, Nebraska. Rumor has it that this move was partly to separate her from her schoolmate Harley Markham of whom her father less than approved, he being from a less than successful farming family in Mead, a small, dirt town south of Fort Collins. Harley left school and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1927 and this separation worked for a while, at least until they both graduated; he from Colorado A&M in Fort Collins with a commission in the U.S. Army Reserve and she, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Nebraska with a major in liberal arts.

On August 27, 1929 Ruth and Harley were married in Fort Collins and traveled to Hoehne, Colorado where Harley taught school and coached the school sports teams for the school year. A year later, Ruth returned to Fort Collins where her first son, Harley Bruce, Jr., was born September 28, 1930. Ruth and Harley pulled up stakes and moved to Fort Worth, Texas where Harley went to work in a magazine distribution firm owned by his sister Marjorie's husband, Kenneth Page. In 1931 they moved once more to Roswell, New Mexico where Harley operated an outdoor advertising firm, the industry which would occupy the rest of his career.

Ruth's father, George McCormick sold the Express Courier in 1928 and retired to Thermopolis, Wyoming. In addition to purchasing the Thermopolis Independent Record, which he published until 1940, he purchased the distressed Midwest Outdoor Advertising Company of Casper, Wyoming which he later sold to his son-in-law, Harley Markham, Sr.

Ruth and Harley moved from Roswell, New Mexico to Casper in 1933 where he took over the management of the Midwest Outdoor Advertising Company in the midst of the great depression. Both Harley and Ruth became active in community activities and social and church organizations.

Ruth was asked to join the P.E.O. sisterhood, a women's organization in which her mother had been a member. P.E.O., or Philanthropic Educational Organization was founded in 1868 by seven women attending Wesleyan College in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. The organization's mission is the advancement of women through education and grew to include a number of educational loan and scholarship funds. Ruth remained active in P.E.O. wherever she lived until the end of her life. She was active in the Methodist Church, the Casper chapter of D.A.R. and the Women's Study Club. When both boys were of school age, her interest in education spurred her to run (unsuccessfully) for the local school board and she was active in the P.T.A.

As was so often the case in those days, the dynamics, fortune and future of a family were unalterably tied to their business. In a closely held, family company, the story of the company is a large part of the story of the family and vice versa.

During their first two months in Casper, the Markham family lived in a rental house at 115 E. 13th Street and, in July, 1933, moved into a small second story walk-up apartment at the Poling Apartments, 842 E. Durbin.

On June 27, 1934 Ruth's second son, William, was born in Fort Collins and the family moved again in July to a rental house at 335 E. 12th where they remained until June, 1936 when they moved to another rental house at 537 E. 11th.

In June 1937 they moved again to a rental house at 1242 S. Center St. then, in March 1938, to 905 S. Grant St. In June, 1940, they moved to the the first home they owned, a house they built at 1645 S. Walnut, .

During these depression years money was scarce and all business was hard with more than a little being done on the basis of barter. Harley worked steadily for the survival of the company and actually managed to expand its territory through acquisition of outdoor advertising plants in Rawlins and Laramie. By 1938 the Midwest Outdoor advertising Company operated throughout the state with the exception of Cheyenne, Sheridan and the southwestern towns of Rock Springs and Evanston.

Skiing was in its infancy in the 1930's and early '40's. Perhaps through desperation for some activity during the long winter months, a rudimentary ski tow was set up on Casper Mountain. The Markhams were among the first to explore this new sport under Harley's leadership. He and Ruth spent many week-ends pulling kids out of snow drifts and helping fill the sitz marks left in the soft, ungroomed snow. Ruth, though not especially athletic, was game and took up skiing and golf.

Harley had attended Army Reserve encampments during the 1930's and when war was declared following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, he was immediately called to active service as a First Lieutenant at age 37. he would have been a year older that month and, most likely, exempt from service due to his age and the size of his family. He was out of town on business when the War Department letter came and upon his return reported to Fort Warren in Cheyenne as ordered. In a short time he was at Fort Sill, Oklahoma and, after a refresher course, took his place as part of the faculty of the Officer Candidate School and Battery Officers Courses as an instructor in Field Artillery. He remained at Fort Sill until transferred to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas as the great armies were being assembled for the invasion and campaigns on continental Europe

When Harley left almost overnight for the service, Ruth Markham took up the reins of the Midwest Outdoor Advertising Company and, with no prior experience, while still caring for her two boys, conducted the business until Harley returned. Her mother, Carrie McCormick, closed her home in Fort Collins and came to live with the family in Casper to help care for the boys.

The outdoor advertising industry was less than profitable during the war with rationing and shortages of revenue, material, supplies and manpower exacerbating the generally reduced business tempo. The fact that the company survived is due entirely to her tireless effort and dedication. Ruth managed to keep up her participation in community affairs and served as a volunteer at the local USO serving personnel of the Army Air Base which had been constructed west of Casper to train bomber pilots for service in Europe. Her troubles were greatly magnified by the care required for her youngest son, Bill, who was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes in 1943 at age 7.

When Harley returned from the service he set out once more to increase the size of the family business through acquisition of adjacent territories culminating in the acquisition of operations in southeast Idaho, nearly doubling the size of the company and prompting a family move to Pocatello, Idaho. Harley and Bruce moved to Pocatello in the spring of 1946 to be followed by Ruth and Bill when he had obtained suitable housing for the family in Pocatello and she had relocated her mother in Casper where she died in May, 1948.

In Pocatello, Ruth was again active with the P.E.O. and Methodist Church. She had a great interest in the Red Cross and served in nearly every local position and finally as a member of the National Board of Governors as a leader of the blood program which had become crucial to hospitals and health care everywhere. Ruth traveled extensively with Harley as he attended industry meetings and conventions in Chicago, New York and elsewhere. By the time their eldest son, Bruce, had returned from service with the U.S. Navy during the Korean conflict, Harley was a member of the national leadership in these organizations which were so vital to the continued prosperity of the outdoor advertising industry.

Ruth's son Bill, who had been married in West Yellowstone, Montana to Ann Morris, had four daughters beginning with Merilee in 1960. Ruth doted on the little girls and found a great deal of enjoyment in participating with their upbringing and watching them mature. After Bill and Ann moved to Casper to manage the family branch there, Ruth and Harley frequently traveled to Casper where they stayed with the children when Bill and Ann were away. The second daughter, Tracy, came to stay in Pocatello with Ruth and Harley and attended school there for a while. After the girls had married and had children of their own, Ruth continued to follow their lives as the "Super Grandma".

When Bill died at the age of 34 in 1968, Ruth was devastated and redoubled her efforts to maintain contact with his daughters.

Ruth and Harley continued their community efforts in Pocatello until retiring to Scottsdale, Arizona in the mid-sixties where they lived and played golf and, as was usual, made new friends and became a part of the community.

Ruth's father, George McCormick died in Thermopolis, Wyoming in February, 1968, a few months short of his 96th birthday. His mother, Harriet Kitchel McCormick had passed away during World War II, in 1943, a few days short of her 99th birthday.

During their time in Arizona, still in good health, Ruth and Harley traveled extensively in the United Kingdom, Europe, Scandinavia, Africa, the middle east and the orient. Harley maintained his political activity and Ruth, her efforts for the American Red Cross.

They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Scottsdale in 1979 at a small dinner that included old friends from Casper, Pocatello and Scottsdale.

In 1980, they moved for the last time to the Los Gatos Meadows in California, a retirement and senior care facility not far from Napa, California where their son, Bruce, had interests in the wine industry. Ruth once more practiced her most famous motto, "Bloom where you are planted," and became an active resident of the Meadows and eager participant in community affairs.

While a resident of the Meadows, Ruth, a voracious reader, managed the library and published the monthly news bulletin. Harley died in Los Gatos in 1984 and Ruth remained at the Los Gatos Meadows, attending P.E.O. affairs and enjoying her friends, the social events and bridge sessions until her death in 1998 at age 91. Both she and Harley are interred next to their son in the Casper Cemetery on E. 4th Street, not far from her mother's grave.

She and Harley had been married for 54 years; she had been a young girl during World War I and suffered the divorce of her parents in a time when that was uncommon. Her life spanned the transition in transportation from buggy and early automobile to the supersonic jet; from the invention of the airplane to man's landing on the moon. She was young wife and mother during the great depression and World War II, suffered the loss of her youngest son, Bill, watched her oldest son go to war in Korea and witnessed the social upheavals and challenges of the 1960's manifested into heretofore unimaginable and permanent shifts in the culture of the United States and the world. She had two children and eight grandchildren, two of whom she outlived, and eleven great grandchildren.

Ruth was a participant and not a bystander in life. She learned to ski, play golf, ride a horse and even scuba dive to be involved with family activities. She always contributed to whatever community was her home and to State and National organizations. She provided strong support for her husband and was a significant and positive influence on her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, none of whom ever heard her raise her voice in anger. Altogether, she, her father and grandmother had been a part of 154 years of American history; all college graduates, teachers and community leaders. Ruth might be best remembered for her admonition when faced with disappointing results, "That's just the way it worked out."

In her immediate family, Ruth was survived only by her son, Bruce, who found among her affects a notebook with the notation, "For You To Read." The message, written in her hand, is quoted here as an illustration of the continuity of her steadfast beliefs, personality and moral strengths:

"Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room. Nothing has happened. Everything remains exactly as it was. I am I, and you are you, and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, we still are. Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference into your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me. Let my name be ever the household word that it always was. let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow on it. There is absolute and unbroken continuity. What is this death but a negligible accident? Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight? I am waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere near, just around the corner. All is well."