Rector, Ruth Yingling, 1921-1999.

Ruth Yingling Rector, a researcher of genealogy and history, was born July 5, 1921, in White County, Arkansas. Her family name is an Americanization of the German name Jüngling. On January 31, 1942, she married Joseph Lee Rector, Jr., of Conway, Arkansas, who was later chief of radiation therapy at St. Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri.

Rector spent a good portion of her life researching, collecting data, and writing genealogy for the Rector, Yingling, Adcock, Clark, Shelby, and Hilger families, as well as many other families who were involved in the settling of the state of Arkansas. Her genealogical research led to in-depth historical research on a large group of German immigrants who came to Arkansas in 1833, and on emigration from Arkansas to New Mexico and California in the 1850s.

Rector wrote articles about her research which were published in the Arkansas Gazette and the Arkansas Times, as well as various genealogical journals. Work on a planned book about the 1833 immigrant group was cut short by the onset of Alzheimers disease. She died on April 8, 1999, in Reno, Nevada.