View source for 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<br>(1986–2011)
}}
                                                                                                                           
'''Ruby Macie Muhammad''' (née '''Grier''') ({{circa|1907}} – died March 2, 2011)<ref name="Fraud">{{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}}</ref><ref name="obituaries">{{cite web|url=https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.obituaries/LxHOWAmLJso|title=Spiritual Leader Ruby Muhammad 1897-2011}}</ref> 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, Georgia|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.<ref name=ruby2/> 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]].<ref name="Fraud"/>

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.<ref name=ruby/> Community records in Sandersville, where she was born, indicate her father died at age 107 and her great-grandfather died at age 110.<ref name=ruby2>{{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 }}</ref>

==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]].<ref name=ruby>{{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.}}</ref> This is an [[Title of Honour|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]].<ref name=ruby/> 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.<ref name=ruby3>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}</ref>

==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:1900s births]]
[[Category:2011 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American women]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American people]]
[[Category:21st-century African-American women]]
[[Category:African-American centenarians]]
[[Category:Age controversies]]
[[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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