Springfield MA Radio: Former Radio Host, Activist Ruth Loving

Ruth Loving

Ruth Stewart Loving, known as the "mother of civil rights in Springfield" – a college graduate at the age of 73, library champion, radio show host, singer, piano player, performer and NAACP leader – died last Tuesday

She was 100-years-of-age 100, according to masslive.com.

Loving, who had been undergoing rehabilitation for about a month at Wingate Nursing Home following surgery after she fell and broke her hip, died of a heart attack.

Loving, who was featured in "The Struggle for Freedom: The History of African Americans in Western Massachusetts," "never wavered from the cause," said Wayne Phaneuf, who authored the book.

"Ruth Loving was one of a kind," Phaneuf said. "She can't be replaced."

Loving was civil rights icon, who brushed shoulders with Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Congressman John Lewis when she was a leader of the Springfield chapter of the NAACP. She also and hosted a radio show on WMAS-AM and FM from 1969 to 2011.