Prolific Person of the Week:

Ruth Ellis

"I was always out of the closet. I didn't have to come out."

Ruth Ellis (July 23, 1899 - October 5, 2000) was born in Springfield, Illinois to Charlie and Carrie Ellis. She was the youngest of four children, and the only daughter. Her parents were born in the last years of slavery, in Tennessee. Her father was self-educated, and became the first African-American mail carrier in Illinois.  

Ellis was raised with no female role models, as her mother passed away when she was a young girl. "My mother died just about the time I started menstruating," Ellis recalled, "so she showed me that, but from then on nobody told me anything." Though unconventional for the time, her father encouraged her attraction to women. He feared that raising a daughter who was involved with boys would, as she later noted, "get [me] into trouble". 

Ellis came out as a lesbian around 1915, before graduating from Springfield High School in 1919. In the 1920s, she met the woman who would become her partner, Ceciline "Babe" Franklin. They moved together to Detroit, Michigan in 1937, where Ellis became the first woman to own a printing business in that city. Her venture was successful, and she made a living printing stationary, fliers, and posters from her home. 

She and Franklin soon opened their home to local members of the LGBT community in Detroit. Said Ellis of the time, "On weekends, that would be the place to come because there weren't many places unless it was in someone's home. So they'd come down, and we'd play the piano and dance, and some of them would play cards." 

Babe and Ruth's relationship was oddly conventional for the time, with each taking their respective roles. Babe, who was young at heart, liked to dance, gamble, and drink. Ruth, who was more practical and sensible, preferred to work, sit quietly reading, or go to church. They were together for over 35 years, until Franklin's death in 1975.

In later life, Ellis remained active by taking self-defense classes (at the age of 79), embracing a younger "out" generation of LGBT youth, attending festivals and parades, and becoming a public speaker. Despite a pressing invitation to go to LGBT conventions in France, Ellis adamantly declined, "No, I'm not crossing no ocean, no way." 

Ellis, at the age of 100, was present at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of the opening of the Ruth Ellis Center in Detroit, a haven erected for at-risk LGBT youth. 

In the fall of 2000, in part to heart problems, Ruth Ellis was hospitalized. Despite pressure to remain in the hospital for at least a few weeks, Ellis insisted on returning home to resume her life. She was attended by her friends and family, until she passed away in her sleep on October 5, 2000. 

Ruth Ellis, having passed away at 101, is credited as being the oldest known lesbian and LGBT activist. 

Works Cited:

http://www.utne.com/Politics/Ruth-Ellis-Americas-Oldest-Lesbian.aspx#ixzz2Jf8aTbrS

http://ishouldbelaughing.blogspot.com/2009/10/lgbt-history-month-ruth-ellis.html