The Parma Hilton Historical Society’s November program will be held Monday, November 11, 7 p.m., in the Ingham Room at the Hilton Community Center, 59 Henry Street. It will be a ZOOM presentation by Dr. Brian Griffith entitled “The Hilton Girl Who Worked for Mussolini.”
Ruth Williams Ricci grew up in Hilton as Ruth Williams and lived at what is now 32 West Avenue. Her father, Dr. W.W. Williams, was a Hilton doctor who delivered all the babies in town between 1887 and 1915. Her mother was Loretta Burritt, granddaughter of Giles Burritt, a pioneer settler for whom Burritt Road is named.
Ruth received her nursing training in Rochester and later moved to New York City where she held an administrative post at the Women’s Hospital. In 1925, she married Dr. James Vincent Ricci, one of Manhattan’s premier obstetricians. He was Italian by birth and pro-fascist in the 1920s and ‘30s.
This is where Ruth’s fascist story begins. Ruth spent her time in Italy as a nurse and journalist. She was an American and the only woman on the ship Gradska that was involved in the Ethiopian Campaign with Mussolini’s forces.
Brian Griffith, PhD. and Assistant Professor at UCLA in California, selected Ruth Ricci as his thesis. He tells the story of her time in Europe and Italy from 1935 to 1941, presenting the pre-World War II story of Ricci’s adventures.
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