Ruth Ann Milam Black Smith was born June 27, 1943 in Benton, Missouri to Leo and Erma Milam. She graduated from Thomas W. Kelly High School in 1961 and attended Business School in Cape Girardeau. On December 5, 1970, married Herbert Ray “Hub” Black, had two children, Kendra and Brandon. Kendra and husband Kenneth liv in Stafford, Virginia. Brandon and wife Jennifer and their daughter Zoe Rae reside in Fairview, TN outside if Nashville. Zoe, Ruth’s only grandchild, of course, was the light of her life. Hub passed away in 1983, and fifteen years later on July 1, 1998, Ruth married her best friend and former pastor, Glynn Smith.