miss rubie harris
1914-2003
Life Story
Early Life in Newton County
Rubie Harris was born on April 12, 1914, in Mississippi, according to the birth date she provided when applying for Social Security. She was the daughter of Paul Harris and Sarah Boyd Harris and grew up in their large farming household in Beat 4 of Newton County.
Rubie was raised alongside numerous brothers and sisters, including Jim, Berta, Velma, Mandy, Bessie, Virgie, Mable, Cathrine, Ollie, Paul Jr., Ida Mae, and Alonzo. Her childhood unfolded within the agricultural world of rural Newton County, where farming and family labor shaped much of everyday life.
The 1920 Federal Census provides one of the earliest records of Rubie as a child. She was recorded at approximately five years old, placing her birth around 1915. She was living with her parents and siblings in Beat 4, where the Harris family worked the land.
Education and Growing Up in the Harris Family
By 1930, Rubie remained in her parents’ Newton County household. That census recorded her age in a way that suggests a birth around 1918, another example of the variation that appears throughout records concerning her age.
Rubie was attending school and had learned to read and write. Several of her brothers and sisters were also attending school, demonstrating the place education held within the Harris household even as the family continued its agricultural work.
Her youth coincided with the beginning of the Great Depression, when rural farming families across Mississippi faced increasing economic hardship. The Harris family nevertheless remained together in Beat 4, where Rubie spent her formative years surrounded by a large network of brothers and sisters.
Resolving Rubie’s Birth Date
Rubie’s surviving records present an unusual challenge concerning her date of birth.
The 1920 census places her birth at approximately 1915, while the 1930 census suggests approximately 1918. Her headstone at Green Grove Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery gives her birth as October 8, 1919, the same date appearing in the Social Security Death Index.
However, Rubie’s own Social Security application, completed during her lifetime, records her birth as April 12, 1914.
Because that date was provided while Rubie was living and is also reasonably consistent with her age in the earliest federal census, April 12, 1914, is used in this biography as the best-supported date of birth.
The later October 8, 1919 date should not simply be discarded. It remains part of Rubie’s documentary history and is preserved on her headstone and in the Social Security Death Index. It is possible that the information used for both records came from the same or similar information supplied near the time of her death, but the available evidence does not establish who provided it.
A Life Rooted in Mississippi
Rubie’s surviving records indicate that she remained closely connected to Mississippi and Newton County throughout her life.
Her Social Security application was made in Mississippi, providing not only evidence of her adult presence in the state but also one of the most important records for reconstructing her birth information.
While some members of the extended Harris family eventually established lives outside Mississippi, Rubie’s documented life remained associated with the communities where she had grown up.
Among her sisters was Armanda “Mandy” Harris Evans, who married Thomas Evans and raised fifteen children. When Mandy died in 1991, her obituary identified Ruby Harris of Decatur, Mississippi, among her surviving sisters.
That obituary provides another valuable snapshot of Rubie’s later years, documenting that she remained in central Mississippi as an older woman.
Part of a Large Harris Family
Rubie’s story cannot be separated from the large family into which she was born.
Paul and Sarah Harris raised numerous children in rural Newton County during a period of tremendous change. Their sons and daughters came of age during segregation, lived through the Great Depression and World War II era, and eventually established families and households of their own.
The large number of Harris siblings also created family connections that spread throughout Newton County and into surrounding communities.
Rubie remained one of the links within that generation.
Death and Burial
Rubie Harris passed away on March 13, 2003.
Her age at death depends upon which of the conflicting birth dates is used. The October 8, 1919 date recorded in the Social Security Death Index and on her headstone would make her eighty-three years old. However, using the April 12, 1914 birth date Rubie herself provided on her Social Security application, she was eighty-eight years old, only a month away from her eighty-ninth birthday.
She was laid to rest at Green Grove Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery in Tanglewood, Newton County, Mississippi.
Her headstone bears the dates October 8, 1919 – March 13, 2003, preserving the later birth date even though earlier evidence points toward an earlier year of birth.
Legacy
Rubie Harris’s life remained closely connected to the rural Mississippi world into which she had been born.
She grew up as a daughter of Paul and Sarah Boyd Harris, surrounded by a large family in Beat 4 of Newton County. She attended school, learned to read and write, and lived through nearly a century of change in Mississippi.
Her records also provide a valuable lesson in family-history research. A date carved into stone may appear definitive, particularly when the same date appears in a later government index. But neither source necessarily outweighs evidence created decades earlier.
In Rubie’s case, her earliest census record places her birth around 1915, while the Social Security application completed during her lifetime gives the specific date April 12, 1914. Those records provide strong evidence that she was several years older than the 1919 date eventually placed on her headstone.
Rather than erase the contradiction, preserving it allows Rubie’s documentary history to speak for itself.
After a life that remained rooted in central Mississippi, Rubie Harris was buried at Green Grove Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery, within the same Newton County landscape where the Harris family’s story had unfolded for generations.
Resting Place
Green Grove Baptist Church Graveyard
Photos/Albums
Sources
- 1920 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, population schedule, Paul Harris household, Beat 4. Rubie Harris was enumerated with her parents, Paul and Sarah Harris, and siblings. Her reported age places her birth at approximately 1915.
- 1930 U.S. Census, Newton County, Mississippi, population schedule, Paul Harris household, Beat 4. Rubie remained in her parents’ household, was attending school, and was able to read and write. Her reported age in this census suggests a birth around 1918.
- Social Security Administration, Applications and Claims Index, application for Rubie Harris. Rubie’s Social Security application records her date of birth as April 12, 1914. Because this information was recorded during Rubie’s lifetime and is reasonably consistent with her age in the earliest census, this biography uses April 12, 1914, as the best-supported birth date.
- Social Security Death Index, Rubie Harris, died March 13, 2003. The index records her date of birth as October 8, 1919, differing from the April 12, 1914 date appearing on her Social Security application.
- Grave marker for Rubie Harris, Green Grove Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery, Tanglewood, Newton County, Mississippi. The marker records her dates as October 8, 1919–March 13, 2003, matching the birth date found in the Social Security Death Index.
- “Armanda Evans,” The Newton Record (Newton, MS), November 13, 1991, 2; “Armanda Evans,” The Union Appeal (Union, MS), November 13, 1991, 8. Armanda “Mandy” Harris Evans’s obituary identifies Ruby Harris of Decatur, Mississippi, as one of her surviving sisters.
- Social Security Administration, Applications and Claims Index, Rubie Harris; Social Security Death Index, Rubie Harris; grave marker, Green Grove Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery. Taken together, these sources document the conflicting birth dates. The Social Security application gives April 12, 1914, while the later death index and grave marker give October 8, 1919.
- Social Security Death Index, Rubie Harris, died March 13, 2003; grave marker, Green Grove Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery. If the April 12, 1914 birth date from Rubie’s Social Security application is used, she was eighty-eight years old when she died; the October 8, 1919 date appearing in the later records would make her eighty-three.
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