Helen Woodford Ruth

Helen Woodford Ruth (October 20, 1897 – January 11, 1929) was the first wife of American baseball player Babe Ruth and the adoptive mother of his daughter Dorothy. Ruth died in a house fire in 1929, the circumstances of which sparked controversy and conspiracy theories among her family that Babe Ruth played a role in her death.

Marriage to Babe Ruth Woodford, a native of South Boston, was sixteen when she met her future husband. According to Ruth, then nineteen, he met his future wife on the day he arrived in Boston on July 11, 1914, for his Major League debut with the Boston Red Sox. At the time, Helen was a waitress at Landers Coffee Shop, and Ruth said she served him when he had breakfast there.

Ruth soon began to court Woodford and eventually proposed to her during a coffee shop visit a few months after their first meeting. Woodford accepted his proposal. Once the season concluded, Helen married Ruth on October 14, 1914, at St. Paul's Catholic Church in Ellicott City, Maryland.

In 1916, they bought an eighty-acre farm out in Sudbury, Massachusetts, twenty miles west of Boston and now called Home Plate Farm. By that time, their marriage had begun to fall apart due to Ruth's infidelities.

In 1921, the couple adopted a daughter, Dorothy (1921–1989). Helen reportedly lost four pregnancies before they adopted their daughter.

As Ruth's fame grew, Helen began hearing more about his extramarital affairs and felt neglected. She began to have nervous breakdowns, for which she was hospitalized numerous times.

Babe and Helen finally separated in 1925. Other than occasionally appearing in public as a couple, the last time being during the 1926 World Series, they lived separate lives for the remainder of their marriage.

Death

At some point after her separation, Ruth met Edward Kinder, a dentist, when she came to work for him as a housekeeper. The pair began a relationship and she soon moved in with him at his home in Watertown, Massachusetts. There, they lived under the guise of a married couple, and she went under the name "Mrs. Helen Kinder".

The cause of the fire was reported by the Watertown Sun as "defective wiring and overloading of wires" in the living room. Initially, the Boston Post reported Ruth's death as that of the wife of a "prominent Watertown dentist" and her funeral was arranged under the name "Helen Kinder". However, an anonymous caller told the police of her real identity, and her death became a nationwide story.

Ruth's husband was in New York City when he was informed of his wife's death. Along with Helen's sisters, Nora and Catherine Woodford, he went to Boston to confirm that the body was that of his wife. He told reporters immediately afterward; he said: "Boys, I'm in a terrible fix. The shock has been a very great one to me. Please let my wife alone. Let her stay dead. That's all I've got to say."

After the fire and Helen's death, Edward Kinder was interviewed by the Watertown Police for four hours, admitting that he and Helen had never been married. He also told them that Ruth knew where Helen was staying.

In her will, she left her estate to her daughter Dorothy, which was valued at $50,000. She also left $5 each to her husband, mother, and her siblings (four brothers and three sisters).

Controversy

In the immediate aftermath, Helen Ruth's family refused to accept that the fire had been accidental, with her brother Thomas asking, "What is there to prove the house wasn't fired? What is there to prove that she wasn't murdered?"

Media portrayal Woodford Ruth was portrayed by actress Trini Alvarado in the 1992 film The Babe.