Ruby Muhammad
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2022}}
{{Infobox person
|image=
|name=Ruby Muhammad
|birth_name=Ruby Macie Grier
|birth_date = {{circa|{{birth date text|1907}}}}
|birth_place=Sandersville, Georgia, U.S.
|death_date={{death date and age|2011|3|2|1907||}}
|death_place=Sacramento, California, U.S.
|other_names=Ruby Pittman
|known_for=Mother of the Nation of Islam
(1986–2011)
}}
Ruby Macie Muhammad (née Grier) ({{circa|1907}} – died March 2, 2011){{cite web|url=http://www.grg.org/CalmentFraud.html|title=Ruby Muhammed Claims She is 112 Years in Sacramento, CA|publisher=Gerontology Research Group|year=2009|accessdate=November 4, 2007|last=Prista Lucas|first=Filipe}}{{cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.obituaries/LxHOWAmLJso|title=Spiritual Leader Ruby Muhammad 1897-2011}} was an African American religious figure and centenarian known as the "Mother of the Nation of Islam." She was born on a farm in Sandersville, Georgia and grew up in Americus. No birth certificate exists to confirm her age, and it has been reported with significant disparity, although she claimed in newspaper interviews that she was born Ruby Macie Grayer on March 20, 1897. Later research, however, suggests she was born in 1907, a decade later, based on the listing of Ruby Macie Grier, recorded as aged 3, in the 1910 census.
Her mother, {{citation needed span|date = August 2022|born in 1889,}} died when she was very young, and she was raised by a woman she called her aunt, although she would later say that this woman was probably not her biological aunt. She did not know her father until she was a teenager. Community records in Sandersville, where she was born, indicate her father died at age 107 and her great-grandfather died at age 110.{{cite web|url=http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifestyle/seniors/story/6745838p-7696920c.html|title=Seniors - Number of centenarians expected to double every decade|accessdate=April 12, 2007|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20060619190640/http://www.sacbee.com/content/lifestyle/seniors/story/6745838p-7696920c.html |archivedate=June 19, 2006 }}
Mother of Islam
Muhammad spent her early years working in the fields and joined the Nation of Islam in 1946 and was named "Mother of the Nation of Islam" in 1986 by Minister Louis Farrakhan.{{cite web|url=http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=69975|title=The life of a matriarch|publisher=Sacramento News|date=July 13, 2006|accessdate=April 11, 2007|last=Saini|first=Sonia K.}} This is an honorary title; Muhammad, who was married twice, was not the widow of Elijah Muhammad, who founded the Nation of Islam.
In 2006, Muhammad moved into a senior center in Rancho Cordova, Sacramento, California. In 2008, Muhammad, then known as Ruby Pittman (the name of her first husband), received a motorized wheelchair as a donation from a scooter store.{{cite web|url=http://medical.presslib.com/family-medicine/660074.htm|title=Disabled Sacramento Woman, 110, Receives Power Wheelchair Donation from The SCOOTER Store|publisher=Medical News|accessdate=February 16, 2008}}{{cite web|url=http://www.sacobserver.com/news/020508/ruby_muhammad_scooter.shtml|title=Mother Muhammad Goes Mobile|publisher=Sacramento Observer|date=February 5, 2008|accessdate=May 25, 2008|last=Barrow|first=Genoa}}
Personal life
Ruby Muhammad was married to John Pittman and had four children. After her first husband died she married James Hyder in 1967.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=69975 Sacramento News & Review interview with Ruby Muhammad, July 13, 2006]
- [http://rubymuhammad.com/home Ruby Muhammad's website, owned by her daughter Paulette Helton]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muhammad, Ruby}}
Category:20th-century African-American women
Category:20th-century African-American people
Category:21st-century African-American women
Category:African-American centenarians
Category:Members of the Nation of Islam
Category:People from Americus, Georgia
Category:People from Sacramento, California
Category:People from Sandersville, Georgia
Category:American women centenarians
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