Ruth Cross Palmer, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Greggory E. Davies
120 Ted Price Lane
Winnfield, LA  71483
gedavies@iAmerica.net



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Ruth Cross Palmer


Ruth Cross Palmer was born December 25, 1887 in Sylvan, Texas, which is near
Paris, Texas.  She was the daughter of Dr. Walter D. Cross and Willie Altie
Cole, and a niece of Misses Jane and Eva Cole and C. B. Cole, all well known
residents of Winnfield, Louisiana.  Ruth graduated from high school at Paris. 
She attended and was Phi Bet Kappa in 1911 at the University of Texas at
Austin with a major in creative writing.  She began her teaching career in
Sweetwater, Texas.

Ruth's mother died while she was in college so she decided to come to
Winnfield, Winn Parish, Louisiana where her mother's brother and sister ran a
store.  C. B. Cole & Company was located on the site of the Venus Theater,
Court Street, across from the Winn Parish Courthouse.  It was while she was in
Winnfield that Ruth Cross started her novel The Golden Cocoon, published by
Harper in 1924.  She said "I started that book in Judge Oglesby's office.  He
had a typewriter and let me use it."

Ruth Cross and George William Palmer were married in 1924.  They lived for
some time in New York and for more than twenty years at Edendale, a 240 acre
estate near Winstead, Connecticut.  Mr. Palmer died in 1947.

After her first novel was published in 1924, becoming a best seller which was
later made into a movie, Ruth Cross Palmer was established as a writer and
author.  She had eight other books published which included a revival of
Soldier of  Fortune, first published in 1936, a historical novel of the life
of Louis Juchereau St. Denis, founder of Natchitoches, Louisiana.  Her last
book, The Beautiful and the Doomed was published in 1976 by the Archives
Division Endowment of Northwestern State University at Natchitoches.  This
novel defended natural beauty.  She stipulated that proceeds from both of
these books be placed in the endowment.  

Mattie Ruth Cross Palmer, 93, died September 30, 1981.  She was a lifelong
member of the Christian Church and has served for more than twenty years as a
Bible instructor.  Until poor health prevented participation, Mrs. Palmer was
an enthusiastic member of the Readers' Review Club of Winnfield.  Her well
known relatives of Winnfield were W. Donald Turner, long time Winnfield school
principal, and Miss Janie Cole and Miss Ruth Wood.  


(The above was written by Mr. W. Donald Turner and permission was granted by
the author for submission to the LA. Gen-Web Archives Project.  Submitted by
Greggory Ellis Davies, Winnfield, Winn Parish, La.)