Talk:Ruth L. Trufant

A fact from Ruth L. Trufant appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 19 July 2022 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Ruth L. Trufant sued a man for not following through on a promise to marry her?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2022/July. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Ruth L. Truffant.

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Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Theleekycauldron (talk) 11:41, 12 July 2022 (UTC)[reply]

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Ruth L. Trufant

... that Ruth L. Trufant (pictured) sued a man for not following through on a promise to marry her? Source: She sued Williams for 50,000 after he made promises to marry her for 7 years. Finally he admitted that he had been decieveing her and was married - so could not marry her. and Lost her appeal - "Breach of Promise" suit and Suicide Bichloride of mercury poisoning on 26 April 1914.
- Reviewed: Template:Did you know nominations/1982 World's Fair
- Comment: Such a sad story. Wide eyed 17 year old goes to the big city and gets wooed by a 50+ year old married man. I am open to other hooks. The newspapers had fun with it, calling her 50k law suit "Balm for the heart" And even after her death. ""Actress Dies of Poisoning When Heart Balm is Denied". This hook does not need the image to be effective IMO. There is also an alternative image here File:Ruth L. Trufant 1912.jpg Both images are free.

Created by Bruxton (talk) and Animalparty (talk). Self-nominated at 18:43, 27 June 2022 (UTC).[reply]

Interesting story, on fine sources, no copyvio obvious. I think your best bet for a hook would be to quote the headline about the $ heart balm. The image is licensed and would be a good illustration of the period. In the article, how is she an opera singer when there's no evidence of any performance? I suggest that you repeat her name for each section, because readers may come from the TOC without context. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:43, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

One more: why is the poison capital? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 10:48, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

@Gerda Arendt: I made the changes you suggested, and per the reference I called her an "aspiring" opera singer. Regarding the heart balm - I feel bad because it feels like I am mocking her to say she needed balm/ointment for her heart. Hopefully someone can come up with a hook. Perhaps @Theleekycauldron: can be called upon to massage out a hook? Bruxton (talk) 17:56, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I'll wait a bit. To mention suing only seems not much nicer than heart balm, imho. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 18:25, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I think Bruxton did a great job with ALT0; simple, devoid of quirk, yet inviting and hooky. We could even not mention that he promised. I'd be iffy about a "heart balm" hook; quotes are nice because it enables us to use catchy language unavailable to wikivoice, but I think it's worth pointing out that calling the lawsuit "heart balm" strikes me as sexist, and it's not very catchy in the first place. theleekycauldron (talk • contribs) (she/they) 19:44, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

What that man did was sexist, but as you like it.What do you think of adding "actress". --Gerda Arendt (talk) 19:51, 30 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Additional News for the article

Courtroom love triangle?
Maida Athens more from the court
Maida Athens competing claims New York Times
1904 career article

Bruxton (talk) 19:19, 27 June 2022 (UTC)[reply]