Ruth Elizabeth Jones McClendon (5 October 1943 – 19 December 2017) was an American politician. McClendon was born in Houston on 5 October 1943, and graduated from Phillis Wheatley High School before attending Texas Southern University as an undergraduate and earning a master's degree from Webster University. She resigned from the state legislature on 31 January 2016, and died in San Antonio of brain cancer on 19 December 2017.