Ruth Dalia Negroni "Cuchy" was born the second daughter of Juan Negroni and Altagracia "Altita" Ruiz in Ensenada, the Guanica county of Puerto Rico in 1936. Along with her sisters, Nydia, Emma and Teresa, Ruth spent her early days on her maternal grandparents farm. Around age 7, Ruth and her sisters came to New York City with their father, Juan, to an apartment in Hell's Kitchen (West side of Manhattan, 56th Street). Meanwhile, Ruth's mom had been employed as a Nanny to a wealthy Chicago Department Store family, earning and saving to reunite with her daughters. Ruth's parents were divorced and her father had remarried someone his daughters did not get along with too well. Ruth often told of the day her Mom finally came to NYC to gather "her girls" and how elated they were to see her. The Negroni Ruiz girls moved to the Flatbush section of Brooklyn. A loving support network of aunts was developing and Ruth was surrounded by love, humor and grit.

Ruth was known to many as "Cuchy" (KOO-chee). It was a nickname formed by her sister, Emma, mispronouncing "Ruthie" and it stuck. Ruth often told us stories about growing up in Brooklyn and Hell's Kitchen. She had her sisters and also many aunts she adored. Our grandmother, Altagracia Ruiz, had numerous sisters that were varied in age and stage of life and some were young enough to even visit the ballroom dances Ruth and her sisters used to go to. Ruth had to learn English at school and often said she learned quickly because she had no other choice. Although Ruth left school to join her mother and aunts in a candy box factory, she later got her GED (and was very proud of it).  She had numerous suitors in these days and was even engaged at one point. However, Ruth always sought her mother's approval and advice and ultimately stayed single into her twenties. One light in her life was the birth of Ruth's nephew, Tommy. Ruth was a caregiver for him in his early years and cherished that time she had with him. 

During her factory work, Ruth's friends encouraged her to apply to be a switchboard operator at AT &T on Canal Street in NY. She got the job and was highly favored at work because she was bilingual. This also meant that Ruth was working the switchboard in which calls from Europe would be "put through" to locations in Central and South America. A widower named Giuseppe was also working for the phone company, Italcable. Operators used to talk to each other to get calls patched through and over time, Giuseppe ("Peppino"), in his 40's and Ruth Dalia, in her 20's,  struck up a friendship. She got to know that he lost his wife to cancer and was living in Rome, Italy, with his parents and  young son, Alberto. They wrote MANY letters to each other and over time, began to fall in love. Peppino asked if he could come to New York and take Ruth to the World's Fair Exhibit in Queens circa 1964. When he came to visit, Ruth's mother thought he was "too old" for her daughter but Peppino persevered through respect and humor. He proposed to Ruth Dalia and they were married September 30th, 1965. Their first child together, Grace, was born the following October, 1966. Adrianne, their second daughter, was born two years later in August, of 1968. Adolescent Alberto was their big brother and they lived together in an apartment at 103 Vermilyea Avenue. On the main floor of that building, lived Ruth's mother, Altita, and on the 2nd floor, Ruth's sister, Emma Alfieri. Inwood Heights was their beloved community. Peppino formally became a citizen and changed his name, officially, to Joseph Attanasio. Ruth was a mother at home but active in the community and school events for her children. Cuchy and Peppino's marriage of 19 years was ended abruptly by his death in 1985, at age 65. Ruth continued to live in the same apartment and thrive in the Inwood community despite this loss.