"My life has been nothing special. I am a quiet person who
came from a very ordinary, middle-class Negro family. I was born
July 23, 1899 in Springfield, Illinois...After high school in
Springfield, a neighborhood man taught me how to set type and
run his presses...I had one real girlfriend. Her name was
Ceciline. We called her Babe. She was the only person I ever
lived with...We lived together for 30 years...When I decided to
have a [print] shop of my own, my girlfriend and I bought a
home...Our house was noted for being a 'gay spot.' There weren't
very many places in Detroit you could go back in 1937,
1940...people used to come from every place... Babe died in
1973...I love to dance, bowl and go to classical music recitals.
I have so many young friends who treat me wonderfully...I'm
having a lot of fun!..."
(From interview with Miss
Ruth by Terri Jewell, in Piece of My Heart).
"I printed anything small, not books or things like that
where it had to be linotyped. I did all printing by
hand...I called [my shop] "Ellis and Franklin Printing Company."
I didn't have any help either. That's why I refused a lot of
jobs because it was too much for me. I wasn't going to
have it run me crazy. I would just take the walk-in trade."
(From interview with Terry Jewell).
The Gay community's love affair with Ellis began
when she was around 80. It started when this elderly black woman
slipped a note to Jaye Spiro, a white female who once taught
self-defense classes and karate to residents of the senior
citizens center where Ellis then lived.
Ellis said she thought Spiro was Gay. So in the note, she
asked whether they could get better acquainted. Spiro responded
by visiting Ellis and then introducing her to Lesbians in other
karate classes she taught.
"Those girls took me to all the bars, and it just snowballed
after that," Ellis said. "Word got around, and I was going every
place."
Ellis, who was born in Springfield, Ill., on July 23, 1899.
(From 100 years young -- Ruth Ellis brings the celebration
of a century to D.C. Black Pride by Rhonda Smith)
Ruth
Ellis' Tale of Two Cities:
One Hundred Years In The Making -- by
Keith Boykin
Some time after eight on the morning of July
21, 1899, Dr. Clarence Hemingway walked out to his front porch
at what was then 439 Oak Park Avenue in Oak Park, Illinois. He
lifted up his cornet, fingered the valves, placed his lips on
the mouthpiece, and began blowing music to announce the birth of
his first son Ernest.
Only forty-eight hours later, one hundred ninety-three miles
southwest in Springfield, Illinois, thirty-eight year old
Charles Ellis and thirty-four year old Carrie Faro Ellis gave
birth to their first daughter Ruth. It's hard to imagine how the
lives of Ernest Hemingway and Ruth Ellis could be more opposite.
Hemingway - White, male, and heterosexual - the
son of
a doctor, was born into a prominent family. Ellis, on the other
hand - Black, female, and homosexual - was born to parents of
modest means, although her father held the distinction of
serving as Springfield's first Black mail carrier.
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