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'Her legacy will be one of love:' Ruth Whitfield remembered in homegoing service Saturday

A photo of Ruth Whitfield, an elder Black woman with short grey hair, wearing black sunglasses, a necklace, earrings, and a patterned blouse, sits on a stand among flowers in the upper right hand of the photo. An usher can be seen in the bottom left-hand corner of the photo.
Emyle Watkins
/
WBFO News
86-year-old Ruth Whitfield, the eldest victim of the May 14th massacre, is remembered in a ceremony at Mt. Olive Baptist Church. The great-great grandmother is survived by Garnell, her partner of 68 years.

Ruth Whitfield, an 86-year-old great-great-grandmother, and wife to her husband of 68 years, was remembered in a homegoing service on Saturday at Mt. Olive Baptist Church.

Whitfield was the eldest, and last victim of the May 14 Buffalo massacre to be laid to rest.

According to her obituary, Ruth had four children: Robin Harris, Garnell Whitfield, Jr., Angela Crawley and Raymond A. Whitfield. She was also a grandmother to nine, a great-grandmother to eight, and a great-great-grandmother to five children.

"You’ve heard a lot about my mom. All of it is true. That’s who she was. She loved us unconditionally. She supported us," her son Garnell Jr. said in her eulogy.

Garnell Whitfield Jr. eulogizes his mother Ruth on Saturday, May 28 at Mt. Olive Baptist Church.
Emyle Watkins
/
WBFO News
Garnell Whitfield Jr. eulogizes his mother Ruth on Saturday, May 28 at Mt. Olive Baptist Church.

Garnell Jr. also shared that he had been working on a raised flower box for Mother's Day before she passed. On Friday, while he was building it, she remarked that he must be building it to last after she's gone. The next day, he came to fill it with dirt but did not stop in as he was unsure if she was awake. She had told him that she was going to get seeds for the planter.

"She didn’t answer the door, I didn’t know if she wasn’t wearing her hearing aids, and I didn’t know if she was still asleep, or whether she was awake so I didn’t want to wake her up, so I left. And I never saw her again. Everyone knows what happened that Saturday. As you know, I tell my family, there was a reason why my mom knew something I didn’t know, and she was telling me to leave that box alone. She didn't need that box."

"She wasn’t trying to grow seeds in that box. She had been tending her seeds all her life," Garnell Jr. said. "She knew that her fruit had ripened. That it was matured. And that’s the only reason my mother stayed this long. Because she was in pain. She was in pain. So we want to thank you. We're going to be okay. We got my father here, we got my family here, we’re going to be okay. But we’re not going quietly into the night. We're not going quietly into the night. My mother deserved more than that. She didn't deserve to die.” 

Ruth's service was as much about her life as it was about the action that can honor her.

"Enough is enough. And that is our plea for justice,” Attorney Ben Crump, who represents her family, said at the service. Along with Civil Rights Activist Rev. Al Sharpton and dignitaries including Vice President Kamala Harris, Crump spoke at the pulpit about justice for Ruth and the Buffalo Ten.

“Her legacy will be one of love," Crump said.

The packed church itself stood as a testament to Whitfield’s far-reaching love and the community that she brought together. The former pastor of Durham Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church, Reverend George Woodruff, also took to the pulpit to share the impact Ruth had on his life.

"She became like a big sister for me," Reverend George Woodruff said of Ruth, who was close with his family, and who loved going thrift shopping with his wife.

"Death cannot take away your memories. The memories you have of Ruth are your memories. As a mother, as a grandmother, as a sister, as a friend, as a church member. And I don't believe there's nothing anyone can say that can change your memories. Her death did not take away your memories of her," Woodruff said.

Emyle Watkins is an investigative journalist covering disability for WBFO.