This is Guy Davis' first Mother's Day without Ruby Dee.
In June the award-winning, actor, author, poet, activist and half of a beloved Hollywood power couple joined her husband, Ossie Davis, who died in 2005.
"The world knows them as Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee," Davis told me. "I knew them as mom and dad and that's how they raised me."
I met Davis, a multi-instrumentalist-blues artist, when he performed at the Dakota as part of the "American Roots Revue" produced by Larry Long, the Twin Cities-based singer, songwriter and activist. Davis' next Minnesota appearance is scheduled for June 6 at Grand Marais' Arrowhead Center for the Arts.
We shot my startribune.com/video interview in Minneapolis on March 7, the 50th anniversary of "Bloody Sunday," the day Civil Rights activists were beaten by police on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the first time protesters tried to walk from Selma to Montgomery in a quest for voting rights. Fortunately, Davis and Dee were not in Alabama for this tragic chapter in American history, but they internalized the lessons of those times, educated and shielded their children for better days.
Davis said he felt a sense of isolation as his parents were determined to give him best of everything, including "a white man's education." He recalls how his mother provided a firm hand that his smart mouth sorely needed. Ruby Dee had the swift hands of a boxer, something Davis laughs about now. Dee's quickness was very much on display in a scene she had with a certain "American Gangster" heartthrob. It's a movie clip about which Davis had an amusing observation.
Long before Dee died, Davis was able to fully appreciate the intellect and patience of his mother. When we talked it was as if he we reciting a love letter to her. As a result of being the father of a now 20-something musician, Davis has become even more astounded by what his mother and father tolerated into his 20s.
Davis now knows that Karma is as real as the love of his mother.