Black Love

Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis Married December 9 - 1948 to February 4 - 2005(his death)

They are one of the most revered couples of the American stage, two of the most prolific and fearless artists in American culture. As individuals and as a team they have created profound and lasting work that has touched us all.

Although neither one of them can remember the actual moment they met one another, Ossie and Ruby met while performing in the Broadway drama "Jeb" at the Amsterdam Theater in new york City in December, 1946.

Three years after they met, Ossie proposed to Ruby by sending a telegram to her from Chicago. During one of their days off (a Thursday) from rehearsals, Ruby and Ossie rode the bus to Jersey City, New Jersey and were married on December 9, 1948 by a Baptist preacher.
Ruby and Ossie didn't have a big ceremony, and there was no wedding gown, no church service, and no pictures. They were married in New Jersey because there was no waiting period there. Ossie's brother Willie and Ruby's sister LaVerne were witnesses for their wedding. Ruby wore a brown suit.

As a playwright, screenwriter, director, producer and actor, Ossie Davis' career spans more than half a century. He has written and directed films (1970's Cotton Comes to Harlem), plays (including 1961's controversial exploration of segregation, Purlie Victorious, and the book for its musical adaptation, Purlie!), and television films (For Us the Living: The Story of Medgar Evers). One of his books for young people, Escape to Freedom , won the Jane Addam's Children's Book Award.

Ruby Dee has appeared in more than 20 films, and her notable stage appearances include roles in A Raisin in the Sun (she later reprised her performance as Ruth in the 1961 film), and Genet's The Balcony. Her acting has been honored with an Obie Award in 1971 for her performance in Athol Fugard's Boesman and Lena, a Drama Desk Award in 1972 for her role in Wedding Band, an Emmy Award for NBC's Decoration Day, and an Ace Award for her ground-braking performance as Mary Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night. As Kate in The Taming of the Shrew and Cordelia in King Lear, she became, in 1965, the first African American woman to play major parts in the American Shakespeare Festival. She has written plays, musicals and several books of poetry, and she turned her own stories and folktales into the 1998 one-woman show, One Good Nerve.