Ruby Jean Johnson

Ruby Jean Johnson (November 16, 1916 – June 26, 1998) was a model, hostess, and socialite. Johnson was a "'glittering personality' of the Harlem Renaissance." Johnson worked as a hostess at the Savoy Ballroom and was the first Black woman to model for New York fashion magazines. In 1998, she was murdered by her neighbor.

Biography Ruby Jean Muckelroy was born on November 16, 1916, in Chattanooga, Oklahoma. When she was young, her father left her family and her mother put her in an orphanage. She lived at the orphanage for eight years and then moved to New Rochelle to live with her grandmother. In the early 1950s, she moved to Greenwich Village from New Rochelle. Around 1937, she met a German artist, and modeled for him as he "taught her how to be beautiful, how to speak, how to be powerful." Johnson worked as a model at this time.

Johnson later worked as a home-care attendant. As her neighborhood changed, she refused to move away, despite having a stray bullet shatter her mirror and having her apartment repeatedly robbed. A few days after her death, her former neighbor, Elbert Mitchell, was seen trying to sell her videocassette recorder and her jewelry. He was later arrested due to DNA evidence and Mitchell claimed that he had been having an affair with Johnson, which her friends did not believe.

The judge sentenced Mitchell as a persistent felony offender to another 25 years in prison for a burglary charge.

Johnson's murder was covered by Charlie LeDuff. His profile on her was cited when he won the 1999 Columbia Journalism Award.

Biography