Ruth Munce

Ruth H. Munce (January 24, 1898 – May 23, 2001) was an American romance novelist, mission teacher and founder of Keswick Christian School in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Early life, family history

Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, Ruth Glover Hill was the second daughter of Presbyterian minister, Thomas Franklin Hill, who died when she was two. As a widow, her mother, Grace Livingston Hill, author of over 100 Christian-themed romance novels, provided a comfortable lifestyle for Munce and her sibling in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Munce's mother was not the only writer in her family line. Her great-aunt, Isabella Macdonald Alden, was also a well-known author who wrote a series called "The Pansy Books" from the mid-to-late 19th century.

Marriage and career

Around 1925, she married Gordon Munce, who was an oil executive for Gulf. The Munces adopted two sons. died in 1947. Her mother, Grace Livingston Hill, also died in 1947, in the midst of writing the novel, Mary Arden. Lippincott Publishers asked Munce to finish her mother's book. Writing under the pen-name, Ruth Livingston Hill, Munce attempted to continue in her mother's style of writing. She says that J. B. Lippincott could not tell the difference between what content was hers and what was her mother's, and Munce refused to show him any of the written variations. Completion of her mother's novel led to her own career as an author, writing six more Christian romances. She also wrote a book of Bible studies and a textbook on the book of Genesis, published in the mid-1980s.

Munce died May 23, 2001, at Mariner Health of Belleair, Florida, where she had been a resident for a week.