Ruth Mix was the real-life daughter of silver screen legend Tom Mix, and was born in Oklahoma on July 13, 1912 Mix and his third wife, Olive Stokes Mix. She was doing silent films in the mid 1920s, and purportedly worked on Broadway and the vaudeville circuit.

Ruth had a brief Hollywood career which spanned a dozen or so film roles over a ten year period that began around 1926. She did sound westerns with Wally Wales (Hal Taliaferro) and Hoot Gibson but is probably best remembered as the female lead in a quartet of 1934-1935 oaters starring Rex Bell for Resolute as well as a trio of cliffhangers for Stage and Screen - THE BLACK COIN (1936), THE AMAZING EXPLOITS OF THE CLUTCHING HAND (1936), and CUSTER'S LAST STAND (1936).

In a November, 1937 newspaper blurb, there is a mention of Grand National doing films with Tex Ritter and Ken Maynard (and that happened) as well as a cowgirl series starring Ruth (that didn't occur).

After completing her Hollywood career, she joined her father's circus and wild west show. The Mix circus went bust and their last performance was in Pecos, Texas on September 10, 1938. At the time, show manager Dail Turney and Ruth were running the operation as Mix was in Europe doing a theater tour and trying to drum up business.

There were several unsuccessful marriages. She got a New York state annulment in 1932 from actor Douglas Gilmore (whom she eloped with to Arizona in 1930 when she was only seventeen). And there were marriages and divorces from rodeo promoter John A. Guthrie and circus performer and rodeo champion Harry Knight. When married to Knight, they lived in Casa Grande, Arizona. There is another marriage for Ruth mentioned in the Olive Stokes memoirs/book: "The death of the circus brought a new life for Ruth. She found time to think over a proposal of marriage from an old suitor, Sheriff Howard Crags, of Raymondville, Texas. They were married, and she and her husband settled on his ranch in the Rio Grande Valley. She was there when Tom came home from Europe."

After the Mix Circus failure, Ruth continued to do appearances in rodeos and wild west shows. I do have an August, 1939 article about her being the featured performer in the wild west rodeo at the New York Worlds Fair (and the article mentions her former husband, Harry Knight).

Ruth married William Hickman Hill in the early 1940s and they resided in the Corpus Christi, Texas area and raised a family. Hill died in 1976 and Ruth passed away on September 1, 1977. The USGenWeb archive has birth info listed for the three children of Ruth Mix and William Hickman Hill: Tomasita Hickman Hill was born 4-6-1943, William Hickman Hill II was born 9-8-1944, and Gordon Russell Hill was born 11-26-1946. Go to:
http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/cameron/vitals/births/1943/cameb43b.txt
http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/cameron/vitals/births/1944/cameb44c.txt
http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/cameron/vitals/births/1946/camb0346.txt

You may want to go to the In Search Of ... page on the Old Corral and then to the Social Security Death Records (SSDI). There you will find a record for: Ruth Hill, born July 13, 1912, and passed away September 1, 1977 in the Corpus Christi, Texas area.

  Although some of the data is incomplete or inaccurate, the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) has information on Ruth Mix: http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0594290/

The Silent Film Sources website has an interesting group of articles on Tom Mix (excerpted from the 1957 memoirs by his wife Olive Stokes Mix). The main article is at: http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/index.htm
The sections devoted to Tom, Ruth and the Circus, as well as Ruth's marriage to Sheriff Howard Crags, of Raymondville, Texas, are at:
http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/33_mix10.htm
http://www.cinemaweb.com/silentfilm/bookshelf/33_mix11.htm

Circus expert Fred D. Pfening, Jr. has a lengthy article titled Tom Mix: His Life, His Films and His Circus at the Circus Historical Society website and it includes mention of Ruth: http://www.circushistory.org/Bandwagon/bw-two.htm

There's some info on Ruth Mix's ex-husband Harry Knight (1907-1989) who hailed from Canada and was a bronc rider and rodeo champ: http://www.ellensburgrodeohalloffame.com/inductees/harryknight.htm
Knight managed Gene Autry's Flying A Rodeo: http://www.scvleon.com/newhall/crowell.htm
There's a photo of Knight at the ProRodeo Hall of Fame webswite: http://www.prorodeohalloffame.com/website/cInductees/bio20.html

Above right - a July, 1938 newspaper ad for a performance in Charles City, Iowa, and the admission price at that time was 60¢ for adults and 25¢ for children. In the fine print at the bottom, you'll see a mention of Ruth Mix along with 'Agee's Australian Hackneys' - Agee is Johnny Agee, renowned horse trainer. Bud Norris adds that soon after Mix's death, Johnny Agee - and his horses - went to work for Gene Autry. A couple months after this performance, the Mix Circus went belly-up.