Ruby Dee Remembered: Son Guy Davis, actress Angela Bassett salute acting legend
An appreciation of the legendary actress and civil rights activists by those who knew her best.
BY GUY DAVIS , ANGELA BASSETT
SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, December 31, 2014, 3:05 PM
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ANTHONY BARBOZA/GETTY IMAGESDee, pictured four years before her death, is equally revered as an actress and as a civil rights activist.
GUY DAVIS, RUBY'S SON
The last few times I saw my mother Ruby Dee before her June 11 death, words and speech did not come easily to her. But she winked at me and playfully bopped me on the chin. She was a communicator to the end.
Most people remember my mom as a beautiful and poignant actress, poet, playwright, director and activist. I got the benefit of having her as my wonderful, involved, concerned and loving parent. With me, she had hands as fast as Bruce Lee. She grew up a Harlem street girl and wasn't afraid to confront you with her little self. Any number of times I'd be smarting off at the mouth, moving at the speed of an insolent teenage boy, and that lady would swat me. It was an upside-the-head kind of slap, and I never saw it coming.
ANTHONY BARBOZA/GETTY IMAGESDee (1922 - 2014) and Ossie Davis (1917 - 2005) with their children, from left, Hasna Muhammad, Guy Davis, and Nora Day in the late ‘90s.
This week I spent some time helping to organize my mom's belongings at her house in New Rochelle. My sisters and I found crates and crates of her drawings, paintings and keepsakes — along with her collection of Christmas ornaments. It reminded me of the year my parents canceled Christmas — at least the commercial version of Christmas.
It was 1963. President Kennedy had just been assassinated, and a couple months earlier, four black schoolgirls had been killed by a church bomb in Birmingham, Alabama. It wasn't a time for shopping and parties. From then on, I always thought of Christmas as more about family and community than anything else.
From a very early age, I knew she and my dad, Ossie Davis, were well-known. I sometimes felt pressured to behave a little more maturely than I actually was, a little more still than I actually wanted to be. But I learned so much.
My mother had an amazing career. She starred in the 1961 movie "A Raisin in the Sun" with Sidney Poitier and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for the 2008 film "American Gangster." But I think she'd like to be remembered most for her writing. She wrote so many poems and stories. Her book "My One Good Nerve" contains a lot of my mom's wisdom and convictions.
My mother was the type of person who would demand that all of us — regardless of race and species — stand up and be heard. She didn't like mumbling. She always said you have to speak loud and clear about the things that you believe and know to be true. If you believed it, you spoke it and stood behind it.
When I think about the protests that followed the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner and the current climate in New York City, I know my mother would want clarity. She would say that all lives matter and all lives are precious — whether they belong to young black people or our brothers and sisters in police uniforms.
We all miss my mom very, very much. But when she left us, she was suffering from the ailments of old age that make life very difficult. When death came, we were all there, surrounding her bed, and it came mercifully. She's with dad now.
TAYLOR HILL/GETTY IMAGESActresses Angela Bassett and Ruby Dee attend an event together in 2012.
ACTRESS ANGELA BASSETT
As a young girl growing up in the south, searching for understanding about life's mysteries, I stumbled upon the enchanting, incomparable Ms. Ruby Dee.
I loved every nuanced performance, every turn of a phrase, every glimpse of recognition.
I could never imagine that I would come to meet, hang, and work with this phenomenal woman, amazing actress and committed activist. But I did meet her, and oh the joy that filled my soul!
AFRO NEWSPAPER/GADO/GETTY IMAGESActress Ruby Dee died in June at the age of 91, but leaves behind a rich legacy on and beyond the screen.
JOHN D. KISCH/SEPARATE CINEMA AR/GETTY IMAGES
Actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis in the Broadway show 'Jeb,' 1946.
She lived with such passion and such determination! For 90-plus years she remained for me a constant and consistent source of inspiration.
Her humor and razor sharp intellect was on display in her poetry and her performances, as well as her generosity of spirit toward any and every man, woman, and child.
She stayed in the game, the fight, and the trenches until she was called heavenward. She remained to the end a towering inspiration on the American stage and in cinema; a wonderful mother to her children, a great wife to her husband, and a soldier in the struggle for justice.
THE WASHINGTON POST/THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGESDee rivets the crowd during a reading at Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 March on Washington.
She made a life-altering impression on a young girl and for that I am eternally grateful! She lived a life that illustrated to me what could be accomplished when dreams collide with hard work!
