Ruth Peter Worth (April 10, 1915 - February 7, 1997)

The Life of Ruth Peter Worth

Ruth Peter Worth (originally, Ruth Wertheimer), was a Jewish Holocaust survivor, U.S. immigrant, lesbian, and long-time home owner in Cherry Grove, Fire Island, New York.

This entry was initiated and written by Jonathan Ned Katz with hours of research assistance, German translations, and written summaries written by volunteer Ron Van Cleef.

Below: Worth's U.S. Naturalization Document Using Name "Ruth Peter Worth".

Ruth was born into a well-to-do family in Halberstadt, Germany on April 10, 1915. While she was still a child her family moved to Berlin, where she was raised. Her mother's family owned a corset manufacturing and repair company with approximately five stores that served an upscale clientele. After Ruth's father, Leopold Wertheimer, died in 1918, her mother, Ellie (Elli, or Elly, or Ellen) Bendix married Israel Rosenfeld, a film producer. At some point, Ruth shortened and Anglicized her birth-father's last name to Worth.

Below: Worth's Passport Photo.

As a young woman, Ruth, aware that her sexual attraction was for women, started adding Peter to her name, and sometimes used Peter as her first name. This was a verbal way of publicly signifying her orientation to other like-minded women and men. As a visual signal of her erotic and affectional interest she also sometimes wore a man's tie, although her figure was slight and her clothes and demeanor throughout her life were otherwise traditionally feminine.

Starting in the late-1920s, Ruth and other family members suffered anti-semitism. In the spring of 1932, Ruth attended the Rackow Handelsschule in Berlin where the anti-semitism of her teachers and classmates forced her to leave before completing her two-year program. She was disappointed as she had hoped to gain a senior-level position in industry or commerce after graduating. In 1935, Ruth attended a new trade school in Berlin, the Fuerstein–Bismarck School, where she became friends with Edith Margot Alexander (later Certe).

On November 16, 1938, Worth left Germany for Paris, France. Her German passport, of that date, is stamped "J" for Jew. She possibly left Germany as a result of Kristallnacht (the Nazi-organized Crystal Night attack on Jews and Jewish businesses, that had occurred on November 9 and 10, 1938.

According to the recollection of anthropologist Esther Newton, who interviewed Worth, "after Peter and her mother went to Paris they were interned, along with many other German refugees, most or all of whom were Jewish, in a concentration camp called Drancy. Ironically, during this period, before the German invasion of France, these people were considered 'aliens'. [Newton suggests that this incarceration was perhaps just an excuse to punish the German Jews.] According to what Peter told me, she developed a flirtation (or perhaps more) with one of the female guards or administrators who then helped them to get out." Worth's papers in the Baeck Institute contain a document headed: "Avis De Libération Du Camp D'internement De Gurs", 21 June 1940", providing evidence of her incarceration.

By December 24, 1940, Worth and her family were planning their departure from France to the United States. In a letter addressed to Worth and her mother, her uncle, William Bendix, already in Jackson Heights, Queens, wrote that he had petitioned the "Emergency Committee" on their behalf. He stated that the Committee normally only reviewed political cases, but they were considering Worth and her mother because their family members were involved with the Anti-Nazi League and the German Democratic Party (Worth’s uncle William described himself as a leading or founding member).

On July 1, 1941, Worth and/or her mother wrote an angry letter to her William Bendix, chastising him for holding up their visas to leave France. She suggested that Bendix was concerned about receiving repayment for their applications. The writers remind him that they are facing a “life and death” situation.

As Esther Newton recalls, in 1941, Worth and her mother made their way to Portugal and there embarked for America.

Worth and her mother emigrated to the United States and settled in New York City. "Ruth Peter Worth" is listed in the U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes as applying for citizenship under that name in New York District Court. Historian Jonathan Ned Katz points to Worth's inclusion of the male name "Peter" on her citizenship application as an extraordinary act of resistance that asserted, in a coded form, her lesbian orientation in the face of severe state, institutional, and cultural sanctions.

Worth found clerical employment at City College in New York City between 1943 and 1949, and from 1949 to 1958 she worked at Hunter College, where, Esther Newton recalls, Worth was an administrative secretary in one of the departments. Newton remembers: "She was a humble person and never expressed resentment to me about being overqualified for the job."

Around 1946, Worth bought a small house in Cherry Grove, Fire Island, New York, then a little-known community of lesbians and gay men. She occupied that house every summer and became a slight, quiet member of the community who walked her beloved dog and was known to everyone as "Peter".

On August 29, 1986, Worth was one of the Cherry Grove inhabitants interviewed by anthropologist Esther Newton for her history of Cherry Grove, published in August 1993, which contains 26 references to Worth. Newton reports that Worth, "despite having somewhat left wing politics, was intensely patriotic, and whenever I would criticize some Reagan policy she would remind me that America gave her refuge and that there was no place else, she thought, where 'gay girls and boys' could be so free".

Worth was also was interviewed by Katherine Linton about her life's journey for "In the Life", the LGBT TV magazine produced in New York City, and that show first aired on October 27, 1996 when Worth was 81. A reviewer of that show said: "her spirit still lives in the irrepressible humor of her eyes, captured for posterity by the 'In the Life' video cameras."

Philis Raskind recalls that in 1991, when she became a summer renter in Cherry Grove, "I noticed this quiet, interesting looking older woman, [Peter Worth] who walked around the community every morning with her little miniature poodle, Cherry. Even though I would say hello to her each day she never did more than nod at me. Deciding to make her acquaintance, I knew the way to her heart was through Cherry. I began to carry treats with me and would stop and pet the dog who immediately looked for me on their walks. Finally, Peter started talking to me!"

In 1996, Raskind purchased a home in Cherry Grove that she shared with her "closest friend", Jon Anderson, and his long-time lover, the painter Paul Cadmus. Raskind's home was closer to Peter's home, and "We became close friends . . . ." Peter "told me her first sexual encounter with another woman was on her voyage to America."

Raskind "was aware that Peter never wanted to live past the point where she could not care for herself." She recalls Peter leaving the island to visit her mother, who lived in New York until she died at an extremely advanced age.

As she grew older, Worth saw elderly friends become incapacitated and helpless, despite their earlier stated desire to end their lives before such a fate. Worth therefore had her hair done, put on her favorite outfit (a pair of beige slacks, a pale blouse and a vest and shoes), and left a phone message for Phylis Raskind "that little Cherry was at such and such kennel and if I did not hear from her in a few days to please take care of her." Peter sat down on the bed in her New York City apartment where she took the pills that ended her life. She died on February 7, 1997. Raskind and friends found a home for Cherry who lived many, many years after her mistress.

In her will, Worth left large donations to the Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund, the national organization committed to achieving full recognition of the civil rights of lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender people and those with HIV. She also left a significant bequest to SAGE, the country's largest and oldest organization dedicated to improving the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) older adults. Worth made Esther Newton her literary executor, and Newton donated Worth's papers to the Baeck Institute, a Jewish history archive in New York City. To the great surprise and delight of Amber Hollibaugh, Newton's partner during the years she was researching the Cherry Grove history, Worth left her friend Hollibaugh her Cherry Grove house.

Photo of Peter Worth by Betsy Haight, from the Collection of Esther Newton.

Bibliography Under Construction

AUTHOR? <TO BE ADDED>"Homosexuals in All Their Diversity". New York Times, October 26,, 1996.

Advance report on "In the Life" PBS, TV broadcast October 27, 1996. "The second [profile] goes to Cherry Grove, a largely homosexual community on Fire Island, L.I., to interview Peter Worth, a lesbian who fled Nazi Germany in the 1930's and has been spending as much time as possible on Fire Island since 1946. Now in her 80's, she says simply: 'I like to be surrounded by my own kind. I lived what I thought was a normal life. Credits: Charles Dominic Ignacio, executive in charge of production; Katherine Linton, senior producer; Desireena Almoradie, associate producer; Barbara Raab, writer; Janet Baus and Trish Cosgrove, segment producers; Micky Small, production manager; created by John Scagliotti. Produced by In the Life Media Inc., Ben Prayz, executive director; John Catania, director of communications; Gary Sharfman, membership director; Audrey Mei-Yee Tsui, membership coordinator. Presented by Thirteen/WNET. Fred Noriega is the executive in charge of production.

Brophy, Stephen. "It’s what I’ve always done’ Great moments in music." Bay Windows (Boston). November 4, 1999.

Report on ’In the Life,’ the gay and lesbian newsmagazine, airing Nov. 6 in Springfield/Northampton [Massachusetts], on WGBY-TV 57, at 11:30 pm; on Nov. 7 in Boston, on WGBH-TV 2, at midnight; on Nov. 12 in Boston, on WGBX-TV 44, at 10 pm.

"This latest "In the Life" episode culminates in a reprise of a segment aired several years ago, in which an 81-year-old lesbian named Peter Worth talked with host Katherine Linton about her young life in Germany and Paris, and how she came to America to escape the Nazis and found her paradise on Fire Island. It happened that the summer of her interview, 1996, was the 50th anniversary of her first visit to the famed gay resort, and she had been back every year since. Sadly she died soon after the segment was aired, but her spirit still lives in the irrepressible humor of her eyes, captured for posterity by the "In the Life" video cameras."

City University of New York. Archive? Employee information?

City University of New York. Board of Higher Education Minutes of Proceedings, June 18, 1945, p. 219. [No school name seems to be listed.] Off. of Dean, Sch. of Tech. CUNY policy document lists Ruth Worth's compensation and employment dates.

Dowling, Jack. Has tape made from a film about 1950 or so. There is a shot of a number of people gathered about the Cherry Grove community house in its early stage. Kay Guiness is also in the film. Has polaroids shots from the film: W.H. Auden at the post office and one of Kay for a friend, but not of Peter. She is with a small group standing by the entrance to the building, dark haired and tiny. A still shot could be taken from the footage which must have been 8mm. color film of the time.

French resistance to Nazis. Any data on Worth's involvement with? <Hollibaugh?>

Fry, Varian. "Emergency Committee". Any files listing Ruth Worth and or her mother?

Hollibaugh, Amber. Interviewed by Jonathan Ned Katz, date?.

Hunter College Archives? Worth worked as secretary as Hunter College for many years. Informant Amber Hollibaugh.

"In the Life". 6 minute segment of interview with Ruth Peter Worth. Original interview tapes also available. Michelle Kristel is contact at In the Life. Michelle says original interview is “riveting.” Major source.

In the Life. "My Fair Ladies". Narrated by Cherry Jones. May 2005.

Includes: "Peter Worth. Sometimes the most prolific form of activism is simply living. Having survived Nazi Germany and a Parisian jail, Peter Worth embodied this spirit. At the time of our interview, Peter was eighty-one and, despite her age, her youth shined eternal." Accessed October 16, 2011 from http://www.inthelifetv.org/html/episodes/28.html In the Life: Episode Guide: 107. "My Fair Ladies Women in the LGBT community; Peter Worth; novelist Ann Bannon; poet Audre Lorde; filmmaker Deborah Dickson. May 3, 2005; accessed October 16, 2011 from http://tv.msn.com/tv/series-episodes/in-the-life/?sb=0&si=101

Katz, Jonathan Ned. Worth, Ruth (Peter). Research File. Includes details not published here.

Lambda Legal Defense & Education Fund. Lambda Update 1998. "Donor Profile: Peter Worth", page <????>.

Includes photo of "Peter Worth in Berlin, 1934. Collection of Esther Newton. Sadly, Worth passed away in 1996. But her spirit lives on with a significant bequest to Lambda, and to SAGE: Senior Action in a Gay Environment."

Newton, Esther. Audio tape interviews with Worth digitized and same interviews typed and scanned. Typed, scanned versions are in NYC. Major source. Copy of audio interviews in Katz Collection.

Newton, Esther. Cherry Grove, Fire Island: Sixty Years in America's First Gay and Lesbian Town Mentions Ruth Peter Worth numbers of times.<Details to be added>

Newton, Esther. "'Dick(less) Tracy' and the Homecoming Queen: Lesbian Power and Representation in Gay-Male Cherry Grove". In Lewin, Ellen, ed. Inventing Lesbian Cultures in America. Boston: Beacon Press Books, December 31, 1996 (FN#39 References to Peter Worth: pp. 227-228.).

Note 39: "Peter Worth, nearing eighty, was approached by one of Joan's lesbian supporters to bless Joan as Homecoming Queen at the tea, presumably to symbolize continuity between the lesbian generations. Peter declined, explaining it was too drafty at Cherry's and that she's not a 'public person'". I reminded her that Kay, the grandest of all Grove 'lady' lesbians, 'would have loved to do it!'" Peter agreed. 'Kay was the one person who could have done it, but she's no longer with us'". Research provided by Ron J. Van Cleef. Google Books accessed October 16, 2011 from: http://books.google.com/books?id=h3nyAkga8J4C&pg=PA227&lpg=PA227&dq=%22Peter+Worth%22+lesbian&source=bl&ots=3PYv065Irr&sig=5z7yBuvP3p-aSIyEUdhm8iajRgI&hl=en&ei=Pv2aTovIIuOqsQLIqeHcBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Peter%20Worth%22&f=false

Newton, Esther. The "Fun Gay Ladies": Lesbians in Cherry Grove, 1936-1960". In Brett Beemyn, ed. Creating a Place for Ourselves: Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Community Histories (PLACE OF PUB? PUBLISHER? DATE OF PUB?), pages 145-???.

"This essay is dedicated to Peter Worth." Worth cited and quoted on pages 149, 151, 152, 155, 159, 162. Peter Worth, Interview by author, August 29, 1986. Note 21, page 162: "Peter, who is slight and feminine, took her first name (which she used in gay contexts but not at work) to signify that she was gay; for the same reason, as a young woman, she wore a tie." Note 29, page 162: "Peter Worth felt that the putative sanctity of the older women's relationships was overblown." Google Books accessed October 16, 2010 from: http://books.google.com/books?id=j2VVa8NVerIC&pg=PA162&lpg=PA162&dq=%22Peter+Worth%22+lesbian&source=bl&ots=8SzOzntiQ7&sig=YHLSTNb4Ktt08dV-i8lXa6jhp28&hl=en&ei=te-aTpI_6qyxAqfF3ekE&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Peter%20Worth%22&f=false

Newton, Esther. Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas. Peter Worth cited or quoted on pages 60, 274, 268.

Page 60: "Pater Worth recalled how, at the end of the number, Mary Ronin, 'who had been sitting very primly through the whole thing suddenly opened her legs and she had to cymbals there she clashed together. It brought the house down!' (interview with author)."

Page 268: "One of my informants, Peter Worth, was shocked by reading here the word 'informant' in reference to herself and her friends. I explained that in all my published work on Cherry Grove I intended to use the word 'narrator' for those whom I had interviewed, but in this essay, I was addressing an anthropological audience for whom the historical importance of the word informant recommended its use."

Note 31, page 274: "Peter Worth, nearing eighty, was approached by one of Joan's lesbian supporters to bless Joan as Homecoming Queen at the tea, presumable to symbolize continuity between the lesbian generations. Peter declined, explaining it was too drafty at Cherry's and that she's not a 'public person'". I reminded her that Kay, the grandest of all Grove 'lady' lesbians, 'would have loved to do it!'" Peter agreed. 'Kay was the one person who could have done it, but she's no longer with us'". Google Books, accessed October 16, 2011 from: http://books.google.com/books?id=z5Wh7Qv0PW0C&pg=PA288&lpg=PA288&dq=%22Peter+Worth%22+lesbian&source=bl&ots=ZgncSWsz1m&sig=oNfs8ZfzHQ7bHsaTxVxhfUAM3aw&hl=en&ei=te-aTpI_6qyxAqfF3ekE&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAg#v=snippet&q=%22Peter%20Worth%22&f=false

Newton, Esther. "My Best Informant's Dress: The Erotic Equation in Fieldwork," pp. 212-35 in Ellen Lewin and William L. Leap, eds., Out in the Field: Reflections of Lesbian and Gay Anthropolgists.

References to Peter Worth: pages ???

Newton, Esther. "My Best Informant's Dress: The Erotic Equation in Fieldwork," pp. 212-35 in Ellen Lewin, ed., Feminist Anthroplogy.

References to Peter Worth: pages ???

Powers, Ed. Lawyer for Worth. See Katz' Worth Research File.

SAGE Archive? Any material on Worth? Other organization she left money to? LAMBDA?

Seeley, Harold. Cherry Grove Archivist. See Katz File.

Social Security Death Index. Shows that Worth, born 10 Ap 1915, died in NYC 10028 on Feb 7 1997. Birth date is confirmed by documents in Baeck Institute.

U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project). Name: Ruth Peter Worth Court District: New York.

Source Citation: National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Washington, D.C.; Index, 1917-1950. Declarations of Intention, U.S. District Court, Southern Dist. of New York, M1675; Microfilm Serial: M1675; Microfilm Roll: 110.

Source Information: Ancestry.com. U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project) [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.... Accessed on October 16, 2011 from http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&db=USnatindex_awap&rank=1&new=1&MSAV=0&msT=1&gss=angs-d&gsfn=Ruth+Peter&gsln=Worth&uidh=t91&pcat=40&fh=0&h=3118505&recoff=5+6+7

Note by Jonathan Ned Katz, October 16, 2011. It was a remarkable act of assertion of a lesbian identity for Worth to list her name on her application for U.S. citizenship as "Ruth Peter Worth".

Van Cleef, Ron. Translations for Jonathan Ned Katz of materials in the Leo Baeck Institution. See Katz' Worth Research File.

In 2009 James Steakley put Jonathan Ned Katz in touch, via email, with Ron Van Cleef, and Van Cleef volunteered to study and translate some of the material in German in the Worth Papers, in the Baeck Institute (see below). Emails between Katz and Van Cleef, starting October 8, 2009. Van Cleef to Katz sending Chronology of Worth's life: November 20, 2009.

Worth, Ruth Peter. Papers and photos. Leo Baeck Institute, New York City. See Katz’s notes on contents.

PHOTOS OF WORTH

One particularly good photo is by Ann Meredith, See Katz's Worth.

Hunter ID photo card

Passport photo.

Photo on French “avidavit” 1941 with name Ruth Karoline Wertheimer.

Most of the photos were in two files, not in any order.

Greeting cards that have Peter Cottontail on them and notes from "Auntie" Peter to young relatives. (Information from Ron Van Cleef, email to Katz of November 20, 2009.

PAPERS FOLDER 1

U.S. Naturalization paper in name of Ruth Peter Worth, Jan 13, 1947, at 617 W. 143 Str.

Avis De Liberation De Camp D’Internement Du Gurs, 21 June 1940

PAPERS FOLDER 2

Meredith Photo in here.

See also:

Notes

Last edited: October 18, 2011. 10:15 am EST