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Julia Ruuttila (1907-1991) was born in Eugene, Oregon, to John and Ella Godman, who were labor and women's suffrage activists. She grew up in logging camps and on a farm, as well as in Eugene. After one short-lived early marriage to William Bowen, Julia attended the University of Oregon during the 1925-1926 school year and then married Maurice "Butch" Bertram and had her only child, Michael Jack, in 1928. After living in California, Oregon, Denver and Chicago, the Bertrams returned to Oregon in early 1929. Butch worked at the West Oregon lumber mill in Linnton, and Julia bought a typewriter. In 1943, Julia divorced Butch and married Ben Eaton, a seaman. That marriage lasted until 1946. She married Oscar Ruuttila in 1951, and they lived in Astoria, Oregon, until his sudden death from a heart attack in 1962. They had no children but raised Julia's grandson, Shane McDonald.

Julia's labor activism included organizing for the woodworkers' union, and she was instrumental in organizing women's auxiliaries of the woodworkers' and longshoremen's unions. In 1936, Julia created the Free Ray Becker Committee to obtain the release of the last IWW prisoner from the Centralia, Washington, tragedy of 1919. She became a lifelong activist on behalf of workers, for peace, and against racial prejudice and political repression, forming many committees and participating in many protests.

Although she wrote poetry, novels, and stories, Julia became best known for her journalism. She wrote for union papers, The Timber Worker (International Woodworkers of America) and the Dispatcher (International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union); the People's World; and for Federated Press, a news service. She wrote under several names: Julia Godman, Julia Bertram, Julia Eaton, and Julia Ruuttila, as well as pen names, Kathleen Cronin and Kathleen Ruuttila.

After World War II, Julia worked as a secretary for the State Public Welfare Commission before being dismissed for her writing and political activities. She then worked as a secretary for the Longshoremen's Union and fishermen's unions. In 1956, she was subpoenaed to testify at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings in Seattle, Washington, based in part on her participation in the Oregon Committee for Protection of the Foreign Born. She had been the subject of FBI surveillance since the early 1940s.

Julia continued her journalism and activism into old age and spent much of 1970 doing interviews and research on Louise Bryant for Virginia Gardner, who published Friend and Lover: The Life of Louise Bryant in 1982. Ill health forced Julia to move to the Marshall Union Manor, a union-operated retirement home, in 1976. Soon, she was editing the Manor's newsletter. Julia became a historical resource herself, frequently speaking to high school and college classes and organizations on labor, civil rights, and women's history. She spent the last years of her life with her grandson, Shane, and his family in Anchorage, Alaska, where she continued to participate in committees and protests.

NOTE: Sticking to the Union: An Oral History of the Life and Times of Julia Ruuttila by Sandy Polishuk provides a full account of Julia's life, much of it in her own words.