Ruth comes to stay with the Morgendorffers shortly after Jake suffers a mild heart attack. She seems to enjoy the opportunity to take care of Jake as if he's a child again, but doesn't get along terribly well with Helen.

She is a woman of outdated attitudes, believing a woman's place is in the home. This is one of many points of contention with Helen - others include Helen's decorating scheme, her cooking (or lack thereof), and the manner in which Helen has raised her daughters. She also feels that Quinn shouldn't pursue her (short-lived) dream of medical school, suggesting that Quinn simply marry a doctor.

Ruth's feelings about Daria are harder to qualify, though she obviously feels Daria needs a change of attitude and appearance. She once offered Daria a hundred dollars to change her hair - and in fact, Daria's other grandmother once made the same offer. Ruth greets Daria with barely a smile, and Quinn with a big hug, indicating that she either favors Quinn or simply knows her granddaughters well enough to know their preferred personal boundaries.

Like her son, Ruth enjoys certain illusions about her life, but they are different ones - she remembers Jake's father as a "decent, caring man" before Jake points out the numerous faults with this statement. She later complains that he gave her $50 per month as an "allowance" and says that this was hardly adequate recognition for raising his children - thus suggesting that Jake is not an only child. She eventually admits that if she could do it over again, she'd stand up for Jake against his father, in addition to doing a number of other things differently.