Ruth Hawkins grew up in Florissant, Missouri, and resides in Jonesboro, Arkansas. During her career, she has been a television reporter, newspaper feature writer and public school information officer in Tidewater, Virginia. She served as a higher education administrator in various capacities at Arkansas State University for more than 40 years before her retirement in 2019. Ruth is author of the book Unbelievable Happiness and Final Sorrow: The Hemingway-Pfeiffer Marriage, a biographical work on author Ernest Hemingway's relationship with the Pfeiffer family of Piggott, Arkansas. It is considered a landmark study on Pauline Pfeiffer and her influence on Hemingway's life and work. She is an inductee into the Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame, along with such notables as Hillary Rodham Clinton, actress Mary Steenburgen, poet Maya Angelou, and entrepreneur Alice Walton. Ruth is recipient of numerous state and national preservation and heritage tourism awards for her activities throughout Arkansas. She holds undergraduate degrees from Christian College (now Columbia College) and the University of Missouri School of Journalism, a master's degree from Arkansas State University and a doctorate from the University of Mississippi.

She also has certifications in American Records and methodology through the International Institute of Genealogical Studies. Ruth and her husband Van have a son and daughter-in-law, Curt Hawkins and Amy Schmidt, who also live in Jonesboro.