Ruth Anna Cuppett was born at home in Napier Township with her Grandmother Blackburn as midwife and spent her early years on the family farm. She moved with her family to Dale Borough in Cambria County in 1918. Ruth began nurse's training at Johnstown's Memorial Hospital (today's Conemaugh Memorial) in February 1931 and graduated with honors from the Nurses' Training School on February 8, 1934. She worked as a general duty nurse at the hospital after graduation. Tragically, Ruth Anna died as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident in the part of Johnstown's Hornerstown neighborhood known as Sunnyside. The accident occurred on the day Ruth Anna took her Pennsylvania state board nurses' examination in Pittsburgh.

The portrait of Ruth Anna Cuppett accompanying this memorial was painted by Louis R. Suto, a Hungarian immigrant who became an American citizen and lived in Westmont Borough in Cambria County, PA. The painting was created seven years after Ruth Anna's tragic death. It hung on the wall in her parents' home through their lives, and it kept Ruth Anna as a constant presence in her siblings' lives and the lives of her nieces and nephews. Ruth Anna's father, Will Carleton Cuppett, was a walking letter carrier in Westmont at the time the portrait was painted, and it's likely he either requested its creation or Mr. Suto offered to make the painting for the Cuppetts. The family was well pleased with Mr. Suto's work.

Note: While the name on Ruth's birth certificate is Margaret Ruth, that seems to be an error made at the time of the certificate's execution or the family changed the name almost immediately among themselves. Throughout her life Ruth was known as Ruth Anna, not Margaret Ruth, and her name is seen as Ruth in the 1920 US Census and as Ruth A. in the 1930 US Census. -- MKeaton