Ruby McClure Brown tended flower and vegetable gardens at her South Side home with a love and devotion exceeded only by that for her four sons and the many foster children who later came into her life.
“After my three brothers and I got out of high school and went away to college, she started working with the Department of Children and Family Services and taking in foster children,” said her third son, Charlie Brown.”She had foster children ranging in age from around 6 months to 13 yearsold. She did that from the mid-1950s until the middle 1980s. Many of those children later came back and told her that she saved them,” Brown said.
Mrs. Brown, 92, died of pneumonia in Michael Reese Hospital on Friday, Oct. 5, her son said. She had been seriously ill since mid-August.
“We affectionately called her Aunt Ruby,” said her pastor, Rev. B. Herbert Martin Sr. of Progressive Community Church in Bronzeville. “Aunt Ruby brought that wonderful Southern hospitality and a great deal of its culture, music and food recipes. I was a beneficiary — many times — of her culinary art.”
Mrs. Brown was born in Canton, Miss., and moved to Chicago’s South Side with her husband, Reginald, in 1936, her son said. Her husband died in 1963.
Charlie Brown starred on the DuSable team that lost to Mt. Vernon in the 1954 state high school championship game. He went on to combine with future NBA Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor to lead Seattle University to a second place finish in the 1958 NCAA Tournament and later became a respected high school basketball referee. Mrs. Brown’s other three sons, Reginald, Leroy and Herb Sr., all attended Tennessee State.
“She was a mother all the way, not only us but also to all of her brothers’ and sisters’ kids,” Charlie Brown said. “After we left, she wanted to keep mothering so she took in the foster children. Sometimes she had three at the same time.”
“She had the matriarchal, maternal spirit of caring,” Martin said. “It did not surprise me that she brought others into her family. That’s just the way she was. She was a very gracious and loving woman.”
In addition to her four sons, Mrs. Brown is survived by a brother, Virgil Travis, of Calumet City and nine grandchildren.
A wake will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, followed by a noon service, in Progressive Community Church, 56 E. 48th St.
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nmilbert@tribune.com
