Ruth Martin (Lassie) - Role

Role

Ruth Martin is the wife of Paul Martin, a young agriculture college graduate and farmer. At the start of the series, the couple buys a small weatherbeaten farm on the outskirts of fictional Calverton from war-widowed Ellen Miller. The two adopt Timmy, a foster child living on the farm, and his companion, a rough collie called Lassie.

Throughout the series, Ruth performs housewifely chores such as cooking meals, ironing and mending, hanging laundry and baking cakes. She milks the cow, gathers eggs, drives about the county in the pickup truck, and participates in Sunday school carnivals, community square dances, and her son's cub scout troop. When her husband is out of the county on business, Ruth manages the farm with the occasional help of neighbor Cully Wilson.

Ruth's housekeeping is sometimes interrupted by Timmy's adventures. She helps him rescue a child trapped in a culvert rapidly filling with flood water, assists him in his 4-H projects, pitches a tent for their overnight accommodation at a Coon Dog Race, and flies into the Canadian wilderness when Timmy and Lassie are swept away in a hot air balloon. Marital affection between Ruth and her husband is only represented through brief kisses and hugs. The role ends when Ruth and Paul emigrate to Australia where Paul will teach agriculture, leaving Lassie with neighbor Cully Wilson. Timmy was reclaimed by the County and eventually adopted by a family named McCullough and began using his middle name, Steven. Ruth and Timmy (Steven) are reunited 25 years later in the seventh episode of the first season of the syndicated television show, The New Lassie, entitled "Roots".