Ruth Gaisford Rothe Wightman was born December 7, 1919 to Charles Joseph and Nellie LaRue Spratley Gaisford in Bingham, Utah. She attended school in American Fork and Carbon County, graduating from American Fork High School in 1938. She married Ernest A. Rothe, December 15, 1938 in the Salt Lake LDS Temple. They bought a home in Lehi. In 1948, they and their 3 boys moved to West Mountain where they raised their 6 children.
Ruth was active in Pen Women, Daughters of Utah Pioneers, PTA and wrote for the Payson Chronicle for many years. She was an active member of the LDS Church where she served in many callings. She and Ernest served in the Provo Temple and 4 missions; Missouri, Los Angeles, South Africa, and in the Oakland Temple Visitor Center. Several years after Ernest's death she married Roy Wightman.