Ruthie E. Horton was born and raised on a farm in Carroll County, Virginia. She lived 33 years in Baltimore and Towson, Maryland, and has spent 18 years where she now lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her education includes School of Nursing at the Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia; School of Engineering at Virginia Poly-technic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia; Strayers Business College, and McCoy College, the night Subsidiary College of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.