Thompson, Ruth, 1887-1970

Ruth Thompson (September 15, 1887 – April 5, 1970) was a Republican politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. A lawyer by profession, she served three terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1951 to 1957.

Born in Whitehall, Michigan, she graduated from Muskegon Business College of nearby Muskegon in 1905. Beginning in 1918, she worked in a law office and studied law in night school for six years before she was admitted to the bar in 1924, becoming the first female lawyer in Muskegon County. She also served as the registrar of the county’s probate court for 18 years. Thompson was elected judge of probate in Muskegon County in 1925, a position she held for 12 years. In 1938 she won election to a term in the Michigan state house of representatives as one of the state’s first female legislators. From 1941 to 1942, Thompson worked for the Social Security Board’s Old Age and Survivor’s Insurance Division in Washington, DC. She then worked for three years in the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division. In 1945, Thompson went to Headquarters Command of U.S. occupation forces in Frankfurt, Germany, and Copenhagen, Denmark, where she worked on the adjutant general’s staff. A year later, she returned to private law practice in Michigan.

Running for the US House of Representatives in 1950, she turned back challenges from the Muskegon County GOP chairman and a former lieutenant governor, relying on grass-roots campaigning and her name recognition from years as a judge. In the general election, she won with 55 percent of the vote in the rural and Republican-leaning district bordering Lake Michigan. She won comfortable re-election campaigns in 1952 and 1954 with 60 and 56 percent of the vote, respectively. A proponent of limited federal spending, Thompson opposed much of the Harry S. Truman administration’s domestic program. In 1953, Thompson proposed the creation of a Department of Peace, which would be represented in the presidential Cabinet.

An unsuccessful candidate for re-nomination in 1956, she returned to Whitehall in 1957. In 1970, Thompson died in Plainwell Sanitorium in Allegan County, Michigan.