A sex positive woman who was not afraid to tell it like it is. RIP Dr. Ruth.

She was phenomenal.

“Hot 97” (WQHT) was WYNY back then, with a middle of the road music format. And we know how raunchy rap can be (even the “radio edits”).

So WYNY traded Sunday night sex education for weeklong sex entertainment.

on Lifetime (I think?) Gotta say we learned a lot! RIP Dr. Ruth!

And never did judge callers when they asked their most intimate or offbeat questions.

And she was funny, too.

I used to listen to her show more than 20 years ago. What a talent.

and useful life. May the same be said of all of us when the time comes.

I'm old enough to remember this, and the internet did not disappoint.

Last edited Sat Jul 13, 2024, 12:01 PM - Edit history (2)

We met at a New Year‘s gathering in South Carolina. We usually met there once a year, but also during the year in New York or in Germany at the Frankfurt Book Fair. She was in real life just as she was on camera—an incredibly aware, alive individual. At the Frankfurt Book Fair, when my wife and I were running to get our train back to Düsseldorf, she insisted on taking us over to the stand of an Israeli publisher she knew, because they had sandwiches. Ever the Jewish grandmother, she wanted to make sure we didn‘t go hungry on our trip home.

This was is South Carolina, with Ruth, Theodore Bikel and his wife, Tamara Brooks. Now only Suzie and I are left.



I was once in New York briefly for some thing with my elder daughter, who lives there. We had dinner in the city with my sister and brother-in-law. My B-I-L mentioned that there was going to be a big concert at Carnegie Hall the following night, honoring Theo's 85th birthday. I has no idea, so I called Theo up, and he answered that he had just landed in New York, and there was no question that I must stay for the concert. It cost me a bloody fortune to change my reservations and book two extra nights at the hotel, but this was going to be something that was not going to be repeated. Not just recent (relatively, anyway) friends like me, but also people with whom he had been singing at Newport Folk Festivals in the 1960s. He introduced me to legends such as Tom Paxton, Peter Yarrow, Noel ("Paul" ) Stuckey (Mary Travers was very ill, and couldn't come) and a LOT of etc.

Before getting my tickets for the big concert, I called up Ruth, as I was sure she'd be there. Sure enough, she was coming. She instructed me, "you must sit near me!" I said I could only do that if she revealed to me where her seats were. She did, so I walked up to Carnegie Hall and asked if there were any seats left near the seats Ruth had named. It turns out she had reserved six seats out of an eight seat box.. So, I grabbed to last two seats (one for me, and one for my daughter). We got there first, having been at the "friends of Theo" reception. But soon enough we heard Ruth's distinctive voice approaching from down the hall. She, Pierre, and some friends entered the box, and she saw us. She asked "what are you doing HERE?" I reminded her she had told me to sit near her, and I said I couldn't get any closer without sitting on her lap. She remarked, "you are very clever!" I said, no, but I was compos mentis enough to write down her seat location. We all had a great time, both pre-show, at the show, and at the after-show party at some night spot.

…and I remember she loved Bikel ‘s singing.

This is what I picked out. Enjoy — your reminiscences are making me smile, too.

One of the main honors of my musical non-career was one New Year's Eve in Charleston, South Carolina. After the new year had been rung in, Theo came up to me and said, "get your guitar, we are going to sing Russian songs!" So I got a guitar, and we searched for an empty conference room. When we found one, Theo and I sang Russian songs for about 45 minutes with an audience that consisted of my wife and two Charleston janitors, one of which said, "I don't know what y'all are singin', but y'all sound pretty good at it!" It had probably been four decades since anyone had ever called Theodore Bikel "pretty good," so I assumed they meant me. This was a "concert" that could have gone on tour and filled a dozen medium sized halls (because of Theo, not because of me!). Instead, it had an audience of three, two of whom had no idea who they were listening to.

🌸🌸🌸

She liked to tell the story of a couple that was trying to have children, but no pregnancy ensued. Ruth said, "I told them to try some different positions, and I know it worked, because the next time I saw them, they had twins!"

Rest in Peace kindly doctor.

She was a regular at Renaissance Weekend for decades but was sick the year I attended.

Just a few years before, there was some kind of weather problem, and the NY airports were shut down at Christmas, so she got on a train and made the 19 hour trip from NYC to Charleston, South Carolina by train. She must have been 87 or 88. She was fearless. At that age, she was still flying off to Vietnam, Mexico, wherever, giving lectures.

My wife, who is also German, and I met her at our first Renaissance Weekend, which was 1999. it was really funny to watch them in conversation. Ruth was 4 feet 7, and my wife is 5 feet 10.

she was way ahead of her time