Ruth Jackson was born on December 13, 1902, in Iowa and moved to Texas with her family as a child where she was described as a tough, headstrong child with the right amount of mischievous and clever; she had a love of the outdoors, particularly horse-riding and hunting. Her family accidentally settled on land rich in oil and so they were well off.
Unlike many other women her age, Dr. Jackson was able to attend college, and she matriculated to the University of Texas at Austin in 1920, where she double-majored in economics and sociology. Her interaction with an injured man during sociology drew her to medicine, but the resistance of her father to that career path remained long into her training.
