By Bart Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 19, 2001; Page B07

Ruth Shick Montgomery, 88, a former nationally syndicated news columnist who in 1965 wrote a best-selling account of the life and predictions of astrologer Jeane Dixon, died of emphysema June 10 at home in Naples, Fla.

Until her retirement in 1969, Mrs. Montgomery was a Washington-based columnist syndicated by Hearst Headline Service and United Press International to 200 newspapers across the country. Her beats included the White House, Capitol Hill and national and foreign affairs.

She covered the Berlin Airlift in 1948, interviewed Juan Peron shortly after he had assumed the presidency of Argentina, flew to Cuba to report the coup d'etat that brought dictator Fulgencio Batista to power and was on the scene to write about the anti-British riots that led to the downfall of King Farouk in Egypt.

She covered then-Vice President Richard Nixon's trip through the Soviet Union and Poland, national political conventions, and White House news conferences from Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt through Lyndon B. Johnson. In 1945, she was the only woman journalist covering Roosevelt's funeral at the White House. In 1950, she was president of the Women's National Press Club.

Her 1965 book, "A Gift of Prophecy," about Dixon, sold more than 3 million copies and helped to build Dixon's reputation as a soothsayer. For nine years before the book's publication, Mrs. Montgomery wrote an annual column describing upcoming world events that Dixon saw in her crystal ball.

Her book described Dixon's 1956 prediction of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and her statement to friends on the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, that "this is the day it will happen." The book also included Dixon's forecast a week ahead of time of the 1968 assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-N.Y.) at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

But Mrs. Montgomery would later complain that the book's editors paid scant attention to her reservations about Dixon's clairvoyance. They "insisted on deleting most of my references to Jeane Dixon's many wrong predictions, leaving in mainly those on which she had hit correctly. . . . I was too tired to put up a proper argument, but after 'A Gift of Prophecy' became one of the most sensational best-sellers of the decade, I wished that I had more firmly stood my ground," she wrote in a 1970 book, "Hail to the Chiefs," which was mainly an account of her 25 years of covering presidents and first ladies.

Dixon's mistakes, Mrs. Montgomery wrote, included a 1954 prediction that President Dwight D. Eisenhower would not run for a second term, a prediction that Nixon would be elected president in 1960 and that Fidel Castro would fall from power in Cuba that year. She also predicted that "Russia would be the first nation to land a man on the moon, probably in 1960."

Mrs. Montgomery was born in Sumner, Ill. She attended Baylor University and began her journalism career as a cub reporter on the Waco News-Tribune in Texas before transferring to Purdue University, from which she graduated. After Purdue, she was a reporter in Louisville and later with the Detroit News, where her role in helping to solve a 1936 murder became the subject of a 1947 NBC radio series, "The Big Story." In that case, Mrs. Montgomery joined a hooded hate organization known as "The Black Legion" to find evidence that led to solving the murder. It would turn out that the chief of police was a secret member of the organization.

It was also while working in Detroit that Mrs. Montgomery obtained an interview with Doris Duke -- then the world's richest woman, who had been avoiding the press -- by hiding under a breakfast table that was wheeled into Duke's honeymoon hotel suite by room service attendants.

She came to the nation's capital in 1943 as the first woman member of the Washington bureau of the New York Daily News. In Washington, she was the first to write the story of Edgar Eisenhower's public criticisms of his younger brother, Dwight David, who was then president of the United States. She suggested in one of her columns that retirees could serve in the Peace Corps, and the idea was later adopted by President Kennedy.

Her books about Washington included "Mrs. L.B.J.," in 1964; "Flowers at the White House," in 1967; and "Once There Was a Nun," a 1962 book about the daughter of Sen. Patrick A. McCarran (D-Nev.), who left a convent after 32 years to care for her widowed mother and invalid sister after her father died.

Shortly after Nixon's inauguration as president in 1969, Mrs. Montgomery retired to Virginia Beach and later to Florida.

After "The Gift of Prophecy," she wrote 10 books on psychic phenomena, the paranormal, occult and supernatural. These included "Here and Hereafter," "The World Before Us," "Companions Along the Way," "A World Beyond," "Strangers Among Us," "Threshold to Tomorrow" and "The World to Come."

Her husband of 58 years, Robert H. Montgomery, died in 1993.

There were no immediate survivors.

Ruth Montgomery Writes Again

Deceased Author Writes From Beyond the Grave

HANOVER, NH - Good Against Evil = Love Versus Fear is the title of a new book that is being written by a New England family, the Macombers, about the messages they say they have been receiving for the past three-and-one-half years from the late Ruth Montgomery, award-winning journalist and noted author of numerous books on psychic phenomena.

Less than a year after she died on June 10, 2001, Mrs. Montgomery made contact with the living from behind death's door, according to Rob Macomber, the family member drafting the manuscript. Macomber explains that, using the same process of automatic writing through which she had received knowledge from Spirit Guides on "The Other Side" for much of her writings, Ruth Montgomery, one-time "First Lady of the Psychic World," began communications with the Macombers, a family who had never met her when she was alive.

As Macomber describes it, Ruth Montgomery said that she had joined these Spirit Guides - including her close friend, the famed medium, Arthur Ford - in Heaven and explained that the human race was at a critical juncture. Macomber said that Ruth explained how, together with these Guides, she would be providing information to the Macomber family - more than one of them - that was to be used to write a book that would spell out how humanity can save itself from self-destruction.

The result of Ruth Montgomery and the Spirit Guides' communications with the Macombers is that they have formed a small, family-run company called "Distinctive Publications for the World" that is putting out the upcoming title, Good Against Evil = Love Versus Fear. The book will include:

- A 3-part action plan that provides solutions to the planet's greatest troubles.

- How the Spirit Guides let it be known that 50% of the book's profits should be donated to help address the world's single most pressing problem.

- Ruth's description of Heaven and the hope that she and the Spirit Guides have for humanity:

It is fun doing this work from "The Other Side." There is so much freedom "up here" . . . I can't wait for the day when humans on Earth will experience this kind of bliss. It is our intention to let the world know that it is very possible to have peace on Earth. The state of the world is such a mess today that we need to clean it up as soon as possible.

- Ruth Montgomery, November 19, 2002

To give away our many secrets is such a relief . . .

- The Spirit Guides, July 30, 2002

Good Against Evil = Love Versus Fear will be coming out in 2006.

Ruth Montgomery Writes Again

MEMO

TO:  Those interested in Ruth Montgomery and her work

FROM:  The Macomber Family

DATE:  October 17, 2005

SUBJECT:  Our communications from Ruth Montgomery and her Spirit Guides since she died

Dear Sisters and Brothers -

For nearly four years now, we have been involved in the most amazing experience of our lives: receiving automatic writing transmissions from Ruth Montgomery and her Spirit Guides. Ruth, Lily (who had been the principal Guide when she was alive - and still is), her dear friend, Arthur Ford, and her husband, Bob, have all been involved in these communications.

While we have sometimes wondered if what has been going on could possibly be real, what has kept us from questioning our own sanity (more than we already have) is the fact that Ruth and her fellow Guides have come through to more than one of us. Furthermore, they have been imparting information on a wide variety of subjects about which we had little or no knowledge before these communications began.

We have taken the hundreds of pages of transmissions we have received from Mrs. Montgomery and her spirit companions and are using this material to write a book entitled Good Against Evil = Love Versus Fear. It contains the story of how our contact with Ruth and the Guides began, what the experience of the past several years has been like for us, and most importantly, their advice for our world. Indeed, these spirits' messages have consistently stressed the urgency of the human race making some major changes if Earth is to have the bright future that they see as possible for the planet and its inhabitants.

We are just now beginning to go public with this project and have recently issued an initial media release about the book that is shown below. If this is something that you feel may be of interest to you, please add this Web page to your list of favorites for future reference. More details on Good Against Evil = Love Versus Fear will soon be posted on this site.

On behalf of Mrs. Montgomery, her fellow Spirit Guides, and ourselves, we would like to express our thanks for your interest in her ongoing work to help humanity.

Respectfully,

The Macombers

UPDATE - NOVEMBER 11, 2005

We would like to inform you of a recent decision we have made regarding this project. We have decided to break the voluminous material into two different books. (To date, we have received in excess of three hundred pages of automatic writing transmissions.)

At this point, our plan is to publish an initial book that will be entitled Ruth Montgomery Writes Again. The second book in the series will be Good Against Evil = Love Versus Fear.

As the writing for of the manuscript for the series�?first book - Ruth Montgomery Writes Again! - nears conclusion, we would like to let you know that we now have a publication date of September 30, 2006.  This means that it will start becoming available through bookstores in October, with the second book - Good Against Evil = Love Versus Fear - scheduled to follow. As we have more details about a specific publication date for the second volume in the series, we will let you know.

One thing we can tell you at this point is what the content of these first two books will focus upon:

The Three Primary Themes

We would like to reiterate our thanks for your interest in Mrs. Montgomery's work and will conclude this update with a more detailed excerpt from Ruth's November 19, 2002 transmission:

It is fun doing this work from "The Other Side."  There is so much freedom "up here." It is indescribable. The best way to put it is a magnificent sunset feeling all day long that never ends. It's like a timeless sense of joy that returns to you each and every second of the day and night. It is beautiful and I can't wait for the day when humans on Earth will experience this kind of bliss. It is our intention to let the world know that it is very possible to have peace on Earth. The state of the world is such a mess today that we need to clean it up as soon as possible.

September 19, 2006 Update

Because the completion of the manuscript for Ruth Montgomery Writes Again! has taken longer than anticipated, we would like you to know that the book will not be coming out until November of 2006. The Guides had said to us early on that getting this book put together was going to take “a lot of work,�?but we had no idea just how much. Please know, however, that we take our responsibility as messengers for them and Ruth very seriously and are more committed than ever to bringing to the world the information they have transmitted through us.

So, as we busy ourselves with moving toward the publication of Ruth Montgomery Writes Again!, we want you to know how VERY much we appreciate your interest in this project and will conclude this update with an excerpt from it that contains some statements from the Spirit Guides:

“We need to impart on you one more idea before you go. Urgency is only the beginning. Once we get going, we need to stick to the plan and become unified. We need to come together and stay together because we are all in this together, not alone.

“No one was put here to be alone. Loneliness is not our purpose. Togetherness is our purpose. Loneliness on people’s terms can teach, but only for small amounts of time, not all the time.

“We need to understand human beings and be together on love. The love of us all, not the love of one man or one person or woman. The love of more than one. The love of all families together will bring the love of the world to us. Mother Earth is calling and waiting patiently because we all belong together.

“We need to get back to the basics of life and forget materialism and money and get back to giving love, not competing. Everyone will get things and be rewarded with gifts from Heaven. We do need money, but more people [who] help, more peace - with the help of people who truly care about each other.

“The world was not made for one man only or one idea. It was made for the whole of humanity to enjoy; not one person or a select group, but all people. Enough suffering has gone on. Now it is time to enjoy the benefits of life. We can see a good bright future for the Earth, if we can get people to help with the cleanup of the Earth. Playing games is not our business. Getting the job done is.�?/P>

November 1, 2006 Update

We are writing to let you know, that, once again, the publication date for Ruth Montgomery Writes Again! has been moved ahead on the calendar. It is now slated to come out in February of 2007. Please know that we are VERY sorry for the delay and apologize for having to reschedule.

To be quite frank, all that has been involved in getting this project put together has given us newfound respect for anyone who is in any way connected to the publishing industry. Suffice it to say that we will never look at any book without better appreciating all that went into its creation.

On the other hand, we truly love what we are doing in this collaboration with Ruth and the Spirit Guides. The past several years have filled us with a sense of excitement, awe, and wonder as we have received information from The Other Side about a wide variety of topics.

Although the spirit realm recognizes that our world faces many formidable challenges, as can be seen from the following statement from the Guides, the overall message from The Other Side is decidedly optimistic about our collective future:

“We want to emphasize that we want all people to have a quality of life that is safe and rich with happiness. We want to see people of all nations to be proud of their heritage and see that everyone has something to contribute. We need to tell you that we see a much safer world in the years to come