Ruiz was born Adela María Ruiz González in a home in the municipality of Grado, Asturias, Spain to parents, José María and Rosalina.[2] She was raised in the nearby city of Oviedo alongside her three sisters, Marta, Mabel, and María José.[2] Ruiz was nicknamed Deli.[2][4][5]
By 1960, Ruiz had moved to Salamanca to study medicine.[2] That same year, she met her future husband, a Panamanian national and fellow student at the University of Salamanca named Arístides Royo.[2] The couple married in the early 1960s and eventually had three children - Marta Elena, Irma Natalia, and Aristides José.[2] Ruiz, Royo and their oldest daughter, Marta, moved to Panama permanently on September 17, 1965.[2]
In addition to her own career, Ruiz held the role of the wife of a government minister and politician.[2] She became First Lady of Panama from 1978 to 1982. During her tenure as first lady, Ruiz created the Asociación Pro Obras de Beneficencia.[1]
Ruiz was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer in 2017.[2] She died from the disease on June 19, 2019, at the age of 75.[1][2][3] Adela Ruiz was survived by her husband, Arístides Royo, and their three children, Marta Elena, Natalia, and Arístides José.[6] Her funeral was held at the National Sanctuary in Bella Vista, Panama City on June 24, 2019.[1] Ruiz's ashes were returned to her native Spain, where they were partially buried at the Praviano cemetery in Riberas, Asturias.[6] A second funeral mass was held at the Carmelite Catholic Church of Oviedo on October 4, 2019.[6] Shortly before the funeral, her remaining ashes were sprinkled into the Cantabrian Sea by her husband and children.[6]
In December 2019, Ruiz's daughter, Natalia Royo de Hagerman, was appointed as Panama's ambassador to the United Kingdom.[5]