Curtiss, Rutha Luella

Native of Hammondsport, NY. Deaf from spinal meningitis at age 6; attended the Hammondsport Union School 1885-1886 and the Rochester School for the Deaf 1889-1903. Assisted in a private kindergarten 1903-1904, was supervisor of little girls at the Rochester School 1904-1909, assistant librarian there 1910-1911, and teacher there 1911 until leaving in 1915 to marry Augustus Hesley (also deaf) and eventually moving to California. Sister of Glenn Hammond Curtiss (1878-1930), motorcycle builder and racer who became a famous early aviator and airplane builder. He learned fingerspelling from his deaf sister Rutha. This fact apparently caused the contemporary deaf community to sometimes misidentify Glenn Curtiss himself as deaf; in fact, he was hearing. Glenn Curtiss later associated with Alexander Graham Bell (q.v.) and others in early Canadian aviation experiments 1907-1909.