Mae was the last child born to Luke and Maggie Ruddock. Her life was one of many tragedies. She was less than a year old when her father died. And then her first husband and two year old daughter died two days apart.

In 1898, Mae lived in Dwight, Michigan.

Mae married Max Kimball on September 26, 1901 and had a daughter Norma in 1903. In 1905 Max died from typhoid pneumonia and Norma died two days later from cholera infantum.

After that her life seemed better. In 1909 her residence was in Kalkaska, Michigan. After her sister-in-law Edith died, she moved in with her brother Roy to tend house and look after his daughter Margaret.

She had a long marriage to Edward H Fortune after their wedding on March 13, 1917 when she was 35 years old. Edward was a clerk at the postal office. They had no children together, though they did adopt Margaret's daughter Doris Mae Beams who was born in 1926.

Mae's mother stayed with them in Ludington each winter as did her brother William many times.