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Ruby Dee
memorialized
in NYC
with
song and
dance
By MARK
KENNEDY
AP Drama
Writer
NEW YORK
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Actress
and
civil
rights
activist
Ruby Dee
was
memorialized
Saturday
in
poetry,
dance
and song
at a
packed
Harlem
cathedral
where
Alicia
Keys
sang her
song
"Superwoman,"
Wynton
Marsalis
performed
a
stirring
trumpet
solo,
and
well-wishes
were
sent
from
Sidney
Poitier,
Harry
Belafonte
and the
White
House.
The
three-hour
celebration
of Lee's
life was
held at
the
cavernous
Riverside
Church
in New
York on
Saturday.
Dee died
June 11
at age
91 and
was
called
everything
from a
"small
but
mighty
lady,"
to a
"street-fighter"
to the
"voice
of our
humanity."
Her
beloved
husband
Ossie
Davis,
whom she
married
in 1948,
died in
2005.
The Rev.
James A.
Forbes
Jr. in
his
remarks
said
Davis
had
likely
been
waiting
for her
outside
the
pearly
gates
since
then.
The
ceremony
was both
sad and
funny,
celebrating
someone
who was
both
"mommy"
and an
icon who
faced
down
apartheid
in South
Africa.
"This
was an
absolute
celebration,"
said
actor
Courtney
B. Vance
afterward.
He also
attended
a
memorial
for
Davis at
the same
church:
"She and
Ossie -
they did
it. They
broke
the
mold.
It's for
us to
now
follow
them."
Dee's
grandkids
painted
a
private
portrait
of a
woman
who
never
slept
in, who
loved
apple
cider
vinegar,
who
rarely
threw
out old
food and
who
loved
gardening
and a
glass of
red wine
- with
an ice
cube.
They
said she
believed
in hard
work,
never
took a
day off,
and even
would
require
they
submit
to an
interview
before
they
were
granted
a
part-time
job
helping
her out
in the
summers.
Her son,
Guy
Davis,
sang his
sweet
song
"Love
Looks
Good on
You."
Dee's
long
career
earned
her an
Emmy, a
Grammy,
two
Screen
Actors
Guild
awards,
the
NAACP
Image
Award,
Kennedy
Center
Honors,
the
National
Medal of
Art and
the
National
Civil
Rights
Museum's
Lifetime
Achievement
Award.
She
earned
an Oscar
nomination
at age
83 for
best
supporting
actress
for her
role in
the 2007
film
"American
Gangster."
Former
New York
City
mayor
David
Dinkins
read a
letter
from
Barack
and
Michelle
Obama
that
praised
her for
an
"extraordinary
life"
and for
"throwing
open the
doors of
opportunity."
The
couple
noted
that
they saw
Dee act
in Spike
Lee's
"Do the
Right
Thing"
on their
first
date.
Eight
actresses
- Tyne
Daly,
Kim
Fields,
S.
Epatha
Merkerson,
Phylicia
Rashad,
Elizabeth
Van
Dyke,
Pauletta
Washington,
Susan
Taylor
and Lynn
Whitfield
- read
sections
of Dee's
poetry
and
prose.
Peter
Yarrow,
of the
band
Peter,
Paul and
Mary and
who had
joined
Dee on
the 1963
March on
Washington,
sang a
medley
of "This
Little
Light of
Mine"
and
"Down by
the
Riverside"
with his
daughter,
Bethany
Yarrow.
Poet
Sonia
Sanchez
delivered
a feisty
piece
that
blended
word and
song,
and a
tribute
was
danced
by four
women to
a
recording
of Dee
reading
her poem
"I Am
Somebody."
Actresses
Angela
Bassett
and
Audra
McDonald
had to
pull out
at the
last
minute.
Dee made
her
Broadway
debut in
the
original
production
of
"South
Pacific"
and in
1965
became
the
first
black
woman to
play
lead
roles at
the
American
Shakespeare
Festival.
She won
an Obie
Award
for the
title
role in
Athol
Fugard's
"Boesman
and
Lena"
and a
Drama
Desk
Award
for her
role in
"Wedding
Band."
On
television,
Dee was
a
leading
cast
member
on the
soap
operas
"Guiding
Light"
and
"Peyton
Place,"
a rare
sight
for a
black
actress
in the
1950s
and 60s.
Actor
Glynn
Turman,
who
played
Dee's
son in
both "A
Raisin
in the
Sun" on
Broadway
and
again on
TV's
"Peyton
Place,"
gave a
soulful
speech
in which
he
recounted
the
times
she
always
helped
him when
their
paths
crossed.
"I feel
honored
to have
known
Ruby Dee
but I
feel so
very
blessed
that she
knew
me," he
said.
Belafonte
submitted
a video
eulogy
in which
he
praised
Dee's
humanity
and
sense of
justice,
and
hoped
that Dee
and
Davis
would be
reunited
in the
hereafter.
Poitier
sent a
letter
to be
read
that
called
Dee "an
artist,
the
likes of
which I
have
never
seen. As
a matter
of fact,
because
of Ruby
Dee, I
always
tried to
stretch
myself
beyond
my
capacities
and
reach
for my
own
untapped
expressions
of the
work."
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