Born in Wiesenfeld, Bavaria, Ruth Westheimer, at age 10, was sent to the protection of a Swiss school as the Nazis came to power. Her parents were both killed in concentration camps. After the war she emigrated with some friends to Israel, then Palestine and she became a Zionist, fighting with the Jewish Underground. She married and moved to Paris where she studied psychology at the Sorbonne. She sailed to New York City in 1956 where a scholarship to the New School for Social Research awaited her. She graduated in 1959 and a year later took a job at Planned Parenthood, becoming project director. She was in her early 50s when she debuted her radio show - paid $25 a week to make Sexually Speaking, a 15 minute show every Sunday that aired after midnight and was an immediate success.
Ruth Westheimer died at her home at the age of 96.
