Ruby Johnson, born April 19, 1936, in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, was an American soul singer. She began her musical journey singing with her eight brothers and sisters in the Temple Beth-El choir. After completing high school, she moved to Virginia Beach, where she worked as a waitress and began singing rhythm and blues with local bands, before spending two years with Samuel Latham and the Rhythm Makers. She then relocated to Washington, D.C., in the late 1950s, joining Ambrose and the Showstoppers, the house band at the Spa nightclub. Her manager, Never Duncan Jnr., placed her with producer Dicky Williams, leading to her first single, "Calling All Boys" (1960), released on the V-Tone label. In 1965, disc jockey Al Bell secured her a contract with Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, where she recorded for the subsidiary label Volt. Backed by musicians like Steve Cropper and Al Jackson, she worked with the writing and production team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter, recording classic soul tracks such as "I'll Run Your Hurt Away" (1966), which reached number 31 on the Billboard R&B chart, and "If I Ever Needed Love (I Sure Do Need It Now)" (1967). After performing in clubs for several more years, she retired from her singing career in 1974. She subsequently worked in government posts, eventually serving as the director of Foster Grandparents. She died on July 4, 1999, in Lanham, Maryland.
