Ruby Muhammad

Ruby Muhammad
Born	Ruby Macie Grier March 20, 1907(1907-03-20) Sandersville, Georgia, U.S.
Died	March 2, 2011(2011-03-02) (aged 103) Sacramento, California, U.S.
Other names	Ruby Pittman
Known for	Mother of the Nation of Islam (1986–2011)
Relatives	Paulette Helton (daughter)

Ruby Muhammad (March 20, 1907 – March 2, 2011) was an American religious figure known as the "Mother of the Nation of Islam." She was born 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. Recent research, however, suggests she was born in 1907, a decade later, based on the listing of Ruby Macie Grier, aged 3, in the 1910 census.

Her mother 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 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.

Muhammad joined the Nation of Islam in 1946 and was named "Mother of the Nation of Islam" in 1986 by Minister Louis Farrakhan. 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 Sacramento, California. In 2008, Muhammad, then known as Ruby Pittman (the name of her second husband), received a motorized wheelchair as a donation from a scooter store.

Death

She died on March 2, 2011, aged 103, from lung cancer in Sacramento, California.

External links

• Sacramento News & Review interview with Ruby Muhammad, July 13, 2006
• Ruby Muhammad's website, owned by her daughter Paulette Helton