Ruth B. Alford MacFarlane was born Ruth May Burgar on May 26, 1920 in Dearborn, Michigan. She grew up in Pittsfield Township, Washtenaw Co., Michigan and attended Town Hall School and Ypsilanti High School. Ruth was married to Barry Hopkins Alford for twenty-six years and they raised 5 children: Peter, Richard, Michael, Thomas, and Janet Alford, after which she was married to Richard MacFarlane for thirteen years. Ruth attended Madonna College in Livonia, Michigan and Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan, earning B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biology. She studied one summer at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. She worked eight years as Curator of the Herbarium at Eastern Michigan University, before moving to the Upper Peninsula in 1970, where she became a writer and had many articles and three books published. She taught courses in Creative Writing and was co-sponsor of the 4-H Club Imaginations. Ruth was a prolific writer and documented life in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the North Country Trail and Peter Wolfe, and other natural resources. She also wrote and published many short stories and articles in a variety of publications. rith was also known under her pseudonym, Russell Burgar. She was a participant in many Ontonagon and Mass City communit groups such as Ontonagon Historical Society, Mass Library, and the Adventure Artisans theater group. She kept the geneological records of her family, including deeds dated back to the mid-nineteenth century. Ruth died on September 22, 2017 in Houghton, Michigan.