The color of water

Ruth's first husband, Andrew McBride (or Dennis), became a Baptist minister, and the couple founded the New Brown Memorial Church in the Red Hook housing project. He passed away at forty-five of lung cancer, and James is the last of his children. Andrew McBride, whom Ruth described as a man with "vision", died before James was born.

A good-natured furnace fireman for the New York Housing Authority, Hunter Jordan was Ruth's second husband and the father of the four youngest children. He spent his entire life savings to buy Ruth and the children a house in Queens.