What follows are a few excerpts from my conversation with Ruth, in her own words.
Ruth: I lived in Springfield until 1937 and then I came to Detroit. They told me I could make a little more money in Detroit than I was making there. I think I was making -- during those times wages were real low -- $10 was a good price then.
KB: $10 a day?
Ruth: No! Ten dollars a week.
KB: Ten dollars a week!
Ruth: I made $3 a week [in Springfield] so [my brother] told me if I came to Detroit I could do a little better. So I came to Detroit and I worked out on Six Mile … I took care of a little boy out there and so I got $7 a week, so that's better than $3. So I finally found a place to room and while I was out there I had had some printing done. I used to work in a print shop in Springfield, so I got up on Thursdays and I'd come to the city to see if I could find me a printing job, and I found one … I worked for a man over there for about ten years in a print shop… I got about $10 a week and it went up to $12 a week… I was there about ten years… .Babe [Ruth's partner of 35 years] was born in Springfield but she was living between Springfield and Philadelphia. She had an aunt in Philadelphia and she stayed with her … and she'd come back and forth. She finally persuaded me to come to Detroit. She said if I ever moved away from Springfield she'd come wherever I was, so Detroit was the place I was so she came to Detroit… So we started living together … and sometime she'd get out and look for a place that we could buy and she finally spotted a place … a two family flat [with 11 rooms], so we bought that [for $5,000]. I had already met some gay girls and boys and after we moved there I let the people stay awhile and then I decided, well I'm going to have me a little shop right here in my home… I took the front room of the downstairs and made a little shop out of it… There were four rooms so I rented that to some gay boys and we lived upstairs. So on the weekend they'd ask all the gay people to come to my house because we didn't have any place to go. The bars weren't gay then.
KB: How did you find each other then?
Ruth: Well, when I first came to Detroit, I knew a lady there and she took me to a restaurant and I spotted a couple of girls there. You know, you kinda feel it. You have that feeling. So you got acquainted. And we used to go to some of their houses for fun, and after they found out where I lived they came to my house. Now some of those girls were married and they couldn't have it at their houses. But one did. Her husband used to go along with it when they played cards and things …
KB: Were you ever married?
Ruth: No, I never married. No children.
KB: Did you ever want to be?
Ruth: No. I didn't want that. I didn't want any children.
KB: When did you first realize that you were gay?
Ruth: Well, I guess going to high school when I call myself falling in love with my gym teacher. These gym teachers had a time with these girls falling in love with them. She didn't know a thing about it, you know.
KB: That was in Springfield?
Ruth: Yes, Springfield.
KB: What's your earliest memory of Springfield, Illinois?
Ruth: When my daddy spanked me because I couldn't go with my mama. I was a mama's girl. I always wanted to be around my mama. I was kind of afraid of my daddy. He was strict so I sort of stayed away from him… I was always around mom -- she always took me somewhere. She took me to see the first airplane -- the Wright Brothers [when] they flew over Springfield from St. Louis.
KB: You saw that?
Ruth: Yeah, I didn't know what I was looking at. She said, you see the plane, and I said yeah I see it, but I didn't know what to look for because I had never seen a plane before.
KB: What were your parents like? You said your father was very strict. How was your mother?
Ruth: My mother, she was very modern… I was the youngest. I was a twin, but my twin she died at birth, so I don't know anything about her. I heard my grandmother said, "This little light baby she ain't gonna live. This little black baby, she's the one that's gonna live." So here I am…
KB: So you were the darker one and she was the lighter one?
Ruth: Yeah, yeah. I took after my dad..
KB: So you were the strong one then, I guess.
Ruth: I guess I was. [Laughter].
KB: Your mother was lighter too?
Ruth: Yes… My mother, I don't think my mother was educated. I don't think she could write. I used to see her look at the papers. She might have been able to read print, but I never saw her write anything. My dad, he could write. And he had books, he had law books and things like that… And he used to say, "Go to school and get an education." … But I was the stupid one."
KB: Why?
Ruth: I didn't have as much sense as the rest of them. I didn't get along well in school. And in school where I went it was a mixed school so they didn't pay much attention to colored people…
KB: Mixed black and white? In Springfield, Illinois? It was integrated even back then?
Ruth: Yes.
KB: Did they have separate facilities at all or water fountains or anything?
Ruth: No.
KB: So you don't have any experience dealing with segregated facilities?
Ruth: Not like that. We couldn't go to their shows and if somebody did let us, we had to sit in the back. Or if you went to the opera house you had to sit up in what I call the peanut area.
KB: What would you say has been your best experience in life so far?
Ruth: A hundred years!
KB: Being 100 years old?
Ruth: Yes!
KB: So today?
Ruth: Yes!
KB: Right now?
Ruth: Yes! I never had anything happen to me like this. I never expected I'd be 100 years old. It didn't even come to my mind. I have friends now who say, "I don't want to live to be no 100." But they don't know how long they're going to live…
KB: How do you stay so positive?
Ruth: I don't know! I'm just a happy old lady, that's all.
KB: No secrets?
Ruth: No worries. I don't make much but I make enough to take care of my bills, so I don't owe anybody. I don't require too much…
KB: How do you stay so healthy?
Ruth: Well, I try to eat the right things. But I've gotten so know that my throat's swelling up on me and I can't eat too well. I can't eat a lot of things that I used to eat.
KB: Do you eat beef, pork?
Ruth: Not often… But I can eat plenty of soft food like beans …
KB: Birthday cake?
Ruth: I'm not too much on cake… I like pies better than cakes. I bake pies.
KB: Oh really.
Ruth: Oh I cook!
KB: What's your favorite thing to cook?
Ruth: My favorite pie is lemon pie.
KB: You don't make sweet potato pie do you? I love sweet potato pie.
Ruth: Yeah, I make any kind…
KB: Did you ever drink alcohol? [Ruth lived through Prohibition from 1919 to 1933 when alcohol was illegal in the United States.]
Ruth: Oh a little, not enough to get used to it. If I can't sleep at night, I'll make me a little high ball. [Laughter.] … I don't have any bad habits.
KB: What would be the one thing you would want people to know about you?
Ruth: That I'm just an ordinary person who likes being modest, being truthful, being kind to people. I like to smile. I like to be happy. I ask my friend, "Are you ever happy?" She says, " What's to be happy about?" I say, "There's a lot of things to be happy about." … I don't know about some of these people I talk with. They just give up… I'm not that way. I like to meet people.
KB: Are you dating anybody now?
Ruth: Dating? No. I got too many friends. [Laughter.] I love them all.