Ruby Russell

Mother Ruby Elaine Russell

“A Wellspring of Hope”

Mother Ruby Elaine Russell, treasured matriarch of the Historic St. Mark Church and Kansas City community, returned to God her Creator and Jesus Christ her Redeemer on November 16, 2021. Born September 20, 1940, to parents James and Lorraine Louise Merriwether, “Mother Ruby” lived a bountiful, meaningful, joyous, colorful, sacrificial, and vibrant life during her fourscore plus one years in this earth. Our village here in Kansas City imparted unto her the African oriented Yoruba name, “Jumoke” meaning, “Everyone Loves the Child.”

Her essence was comprised of a unique matriarchal spirit, birthed out from her uncompromising and incomparable union with Jesus Christ and her bedrock solidarity with our African heritage, our Black culture, and the liberation struggle of our people. Thus, she possessed an unfailing and ever deepening love for the church, the Mother Land of Africa, and the Black community of Kansas City. She is, always will be for us, sage and griot, friend and sister, counselor and priestess, caregiver and leader, theologian and thinker, activist and community organizer, and transfer and translator of our essence as a people in that transcendent way in which we know our ancestors remain with us.

Her servanthood to Jesus Christ is unquestionable. She is a charter member of St. Mark and has been a pillar of its storied and unique mission and ministry since the church’s founding in 1968. Her life was given over to the church and she defended, protected, and nurtured St. Mark with her spiritual and natural resources until she transitioned. During her final eight years in this earth, she served as the Chair of the Church Council of St. Mark and assumed her God-given role and calling as the Mother of the Church. She helped lead and inaugurate the first public city-wide Kwanzaa celebrations in the city which were held at the Historic St. Mark Church and the Wayne Minor community center within and along the 12th Street corridor. She served on the United Inner City Services Board of Directors, a non-profit entity, where her involvement was integral to the construction and continued operation of the St. Mark Family and Early Childhood Development Center, also within the 12th Street corridor. Additionally, she has served within the Drama Group of St. Mark, as an Elder of the Church, Sunday school teacher, Board member of the St. Mark Housing Corporation, and has selflessly given her time, talent, and treasure to ensure the church’s mission and ministry advances.

She has been wholly dedicated to the liberation of Black people, a commitment dating as far back to her allegiance with the work of the Social Action Committee (SAC 20) here in Kansas City and her work with the National Black United Front-KC Chapter in its mentoring programs and cultural programs. More recently her involvement with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City as a conduit of St. Mark in two of SCLC’s more recent victories included the 2017 Living wage Ordinance and the 2019 and 2021 Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd renaming’s. Her Pan-Africanist and Black Nationalist philosophies led her to take multiple trips, often annually, to Africa including Nigeria where she would foster relationships with our brothers and sisters there and bring artifacts, clothing, jewelry, and artwork which she freely shared with her Village here in Kansas City. She has stood prophetically and courageously in ecclesial circles demanding just and fair treatment from white faith communities when St. Mark and its members and clergy have battled against the forces of racism, white supremacy, and white privilege.

Mother Ruby was deeply spiritual, a lover of God’s Word, witty, wise, smart, patient, understanding, kind, and a tenacious defender of our people, our Village, our culture, and those whom she loved. She cared for the vulnerable. She was a fierce defender of the health and life of her sister Shirley when the physicians counted her out. She nurtured the young and yet demanded respect from them as was her right and responsibility within the Village to do so. Mother Ruby didn’t play games. Yet, there was no one more tender and sweet. She added these resources, an Associate Degree in Biology from Penn Valley Community College which enabled her career in the medical profession where she worked for thirty-three years. She was a creative and talented hair stylist and loved the beauty of Black womanhood, Black manhood, the Black family, extended family, and African garments and linen. She is our “Dear Heart” a phrase she used to greet us and love on us continually. She declared during her final days in this earth that she was drinking from the “Wellspring of Hope” (Romans 5:1-5; Psalm 42:1-11) as she faithfully served Jesus Christ and the Historic St. Mark Church until she gave her last breath and took her place in Christ’s paradise. We now drink from that Wellspring, who is Jesus having seen and known from her life and witness where our help doth come from. She taught and told us, among many things, “Take your God given spot and don’t let the devil or nobody else move you from it!” She is a ruby, beautiful and treasured in our sight and God’s.

She is cherished by many and leaves most intimately, Shirley Merriwether (sister); Michael Merriwether (nephew); Terra Purifoye (niece); Terence, Florine Hill, Carol Crook, Marva Bell (Louis), Edwina Hammons, St. Mark’s Family, Rev. Dr. Vernon Percy Howard, Jr. (spiritual son) and Rev. Chaunia Chandler-Howard.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Ruby Russell, please visit our floral store.