[Nfbmt] Remembering Ruby

[Marks, Jim]

The following is an update I sent my staff today.  I thought the NFB-MT list
would like to see it.  In my role as the Administrator of the Disability
Employment and Transitions Division of the Montana Department of Public
Health and Human Services, I try to send out a weekly update to my staff
members.  The updates allow me to connect the programs of the Division,
which include Montana Blind and Low Vision Services, with what it means to
have a disability.  To understand blindness and other disabilities,
professional service providers need to know people with disabilities must
assert our fundamental human right for self-determination in a world that
tries to rob people with disabilities from control over our own lives and
the services we use.  Knowing a bit about where we've been and where we are
going requires an understanding of our history.  This particular update is
about three Montanans who were blind and who helped pave the way to improved
security, opportunity, and equality for people with disabilities.  This
update is very short compared to what could have been said.  In fact, I may
add to the story by adding more details and publishing an extended article
in other forums such as the Braille Monitor of the National Federation of
the Blind.  To that end, it sure would be helpful if others on this list
could share more details about the topic.  Also, I believe everything I
included is accurate, but, if you see anything that requires correction,
please speak up.  I hope you enjoy this slice of history.  Thanks much, and
keep reading the forward below.

BTW, Ruby Huckaba was a very bubbly person.  She gave me the information
when I interviewed her sometime in the 1990s when Ruby was in her late 70s.
I miss her warmth and cheerfulness.  Her stories are well worth the
re-telling.

Jim Marks
Blind.grizzly at gmail.com


Original message...
From: Marks, Jim 
Sent: Wednesday, February 24, 2016 12:17 PM
To: HHS DET All Staff; Runkel, Robert; Ebelt, Jon
Subject: Remembering Ruby

This is an update from me, Jim Marks, to the staff members of Disability
Employment and Transitions.  Feedback is welcome.

Several years ago, I interviewed Ruby Huckaba of Missoula regarding her time
spent in a Montana institution for people with disabilities.  I intended to
publish an article about her experiences, but never got around to it until
now.  Ruby passed away in June 2013 at the age of 92.  When we talked, we
were both members of the Montana Association for the Blind.

I asked Ruby what it was like to have been a high school student at what was
then called, The Montana Home for the Deaf, Blind, and Feeble Minded."  Ruby
spent a few years there, leaving the institution shortly before its deaf and
blind services moved from Boulder to Great Falls in 1937.  Ruby actually
graduated from high school in Whitehall, Montana, and the majority of her
schooling occurred in mainstream schools.  Her time at Boulder helped her
build her Braille literacy skills.

Ruby became legally blind at age 2 from a fall.  Her visual impairment left
quite a bit of usable residual vision.  In the lexicon of the institution,
Ruby was a "high partial," which is different from a "total."  Ruby said the
institution granted high partials certain privileges, but denied the same to
students with little to no residual vision.  School authorities deprived
totals opportunities such as performing extra duties around the campus.
Ruby said one task she liked a lot was wiping cafeteria tables clean.  Ruby
said she loved walking around with a washrag in her hand at meal times
because she could visit with other residents.  You see, Ruby always liked
the social scene.

It turns out that Ruby had a high school boyfriend named Marshall Brondum.
Some may recognize Marshall's name.  He was a successful Missoula
businessman who happened to be blind, completely blind.  Marshall's business
centered on television services.  He started out repairing radios and
televisions and ended up the primary owner of Missoula's Marshall Cable TV.
Old time Missoulians remember his store well because Marshall would put all
the televisions in his shop's windows with the screen facing out.  Marshall
couldn't see the screen.  All he required was access to the back of the
device.  His customers really got a kick out of Marshall's unintended
advertising.  They opened up their wallets.  Marshall was not only
successful, he was also generous.  He left behind a charity called the
Marshall and Mary Brondum Foundation.  This organization grants funds to
individuals and groups connected to disability issues, especially for the
purpose of accessing technology.  But let's get back to Ruby's story.

School authorities did all they could to keep the boys and girls apart.
Having a sweetheart in the institution was not for the faint of heart.  Ruby
and Marshall had a special trick to overcome the enforced separation.  They
would take turns playing the piano.  While at the piano they would leave and
retrieve notes and small gifts.  The notes were in Braille, and gifts
consisted of items like a stick of chewing gum.  When the young couple went
home --- their families were both in Missoula at the time --- Ruby's and
Marshall's parents allowed them to court in mainstream ways.  Their
relationship didn't last.  They drifted apart after high school and each
married someone else.  Still, Ruby fondly remembered their time together.

Ruby told me that Marshall could run down the gravel road near his home in
the Rattlesnake neighborhood of Missoula.  She said he could count the fence
posts as he jogged past merely by paying attention to the sound.  He always
knew where he was and where he was going, better than most people I've met,
Ruby said.

I asked Ruby about another fellow institutional classmate and well know
blind person, Lelia Proctor.  Lelia was younger than Ruby, but Ruby
remembered Lelia's fierce spirit.  She was a pixie of a person, Ruby said,
but no one messed with her.  Lelia was one of the founding members of the
Montana Association for the Blind, which began around 1946.  She graduated
at the top of her history class from the University of Montana during World
War II.  Unfortunately, the school honored her accomplishments by giving her
a dictionary.  To the second best graduate that year, a person who happened
to be sighted and male, they granted a graduate scholarship.

In her role as the leader of Montana's organized blind, Lelia testified
about sexual abuse at the Great Falls School for the Deaf and Blind.
Lelia's stand cost the Montana Association for the Blind financial support,
but she always felt that doing the right thing sometimes comes at a cost.
Ruby and I talked about this, especially given Ruby's institutional memories
consisting of young love.

Ruby said this kind of bad stuff happened on occasion.  She said
institutions are strange places in which predators can prey fairly easily,
adding that she never experienced any abuse personally.  Still, she said, so
much was so tightly controlled, and the expectations were so rigid.  She
said she was glad to have had close friends like Marshall and Lelia as well
as a supportive family.  And she said it was good that blindness
organizations persisted over the years so that individuals could stand a
chance.

Today's services for people with disabilities are considerably different
from those Ruby, Marshall, and Lelia knew.  Those three are all gone now.
Their legacy continues, and it's good to glimpse their lives even in the
briefest of looks.  They helped pave the way to our current understanding of
disability.  We have much more to do, but it's good to see progress from the
point of view of the giants on whose shoulders we now stand.




Jim Marks
Administrator of Disability Employment and Transitions
Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services
(406) 444-2591
jimmarks at mt.gov
http://www.dphhs.mt.gov/detd/