Dorothy Ruth Pirone facts for kids

Dorothy Ruth Pirone (born Dorothy Helen Ruth; June 7, 1921 – May 18, 1989) was the allegedly biological daughter of the American baseball player Babe Ruth and his mistress Juanita Jennings (born Juanita Grenandtz). She was adopted by Babe and his first wife Helen Woodford Ruth of Boston, Massachusetts. She wrote a memoir of her father, titled My Dad, the Babe (1988).

Childhood

Dorothy was born June 7, 1921, in New York City at St. Vincent's Hospital to Juanita Jennings, and was adopted by Babe and Helen Ruth (née Woodford). It is documented that Dorothy was raised to believe that Helen was her biological mother.

Helen and Babe Ruth separated sometime between 1924 and 1926, but did not divorce because of their religious beliefs. Dorothy lived with her adoptive mother Helen after the separation. In January 1929, when she was 7 years old, her mother died in a house fire. After Helen's death, Dorothy lived with her father and Claire Merritt Ruth, whom he married in April 1929. She had one sister as Babe had adopted Claire's daughter Julia.

Dorothy learned at the age of 59 in 1980 that Juanita Jennings Ellias was her biological mother. Dorothy had known Juanita growing up, but only as a friend of her father. She referred to Jennings as Aunt Nita.

Personal life

She married Daniel J. Sullivan, a Brooklyn employee of the Railway Express Agency, on January 7, 1940. Her son, Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. (1940–1974), was born in October 1940 and later had five children. Dorothy's marriage to Sullivan also produced two daughters, Genevieve Herrlein and Ellen Ruth Hourigan (1943-2017), before the union ended in 1945. Dorothy later married Dominick Pirone in New York City on December 8, 1948. Three children were born of this second marriage: Donna Analovitch, Richard Pirone (1950–2001), and Linda Ruth Tosetti (b. 1954). She lived in Durham, Connecticut, raised Arabian horses, and wrote My Dad, the Babe.

She was a joint plaintiff along with the Babe Ruth League in a trademark dispute with Macmillan Incorporated over use of the Babe Ruth likeness.

She died on May 18, 1989, at the age of 67 in Durham, Connecticut, survived by four daughters, a son and 12 grandchildren.