Ann Arbor, News: Spann, Ruth Anne Ann Arbor, MI In the early morning of October 3, 2003 Ruth Anne Spann died at home as a hospice patient for breast cancer. She was the only child of Emerson Frederick and Gertrude Black Adams, born on May 24, 1916, as part of the fourth generation of her family native to Ann Arbor. Her great uncle, James Tobey Green, and his wife, Ruth Knox Green, adopted Ruth when she was four years old, and raised her in their home on Detroit Street. Mrs. Spann was educated in Ann Arbor's public schools, graduating from Ann Arbor High School in the class of 1933. She later took classes from the Normal Teacher Colleges in Kalamazoo and Ypsilanti. She became the first black worker in the Ann Arbor branch of the Michigan Employment Security Commission, which she served finally as a claims supervisor over a thirty-seven year career. In retirement she served Good Shepherd United Church of Christ as its secretary. In 1943 Ruth married Paul Spann, her husband of 55 years with whom she raised their three children as another generation of Ann Arbor natives. She was a mem ber of Second Baptist Church for 77 years, and served its choir, Sunday School, Credit Union and Food Ministry. The Ann Arbor community honored her with awards from Good Shepherd Church and the Ann Arbor Black Businesswomen's Council. She also appears in an Eastern Michigan University documentary on the history of African- Americans in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. She volunteered at the Planned Parent hood, Leaning Post, and as a prison inmate correspondent. Her surviving family includes two sons, Ronald (Jacqueline) and David (Mary) Spann; and daughter, Janice (Johnnie) Franklin; granddaughters, Shannon MacVean-Brown and Tanya Billet; grandsons, Quincy Brown, Seth Spann and Huett Franklin; and several nieces, nephews and cousins. She was preceded in death by husband, Paul, their infant son, Thomas, her sister, Lorabelle Johnson, and her brother, Emerson Adams. Her burial service will take place at Ann Arbor's Second Baptist Church, 850 Red Oak Drive at 11am Tuesday, October 7, 2003. Family hours are set for Monday, October 6, 6-8 p.m. and Tuesday, 10:30-11 a.m. at the church. Interment will be in the United Memorial Gardens of Plymouth. Funeral arrangements are being completed by Nie Funeral Home of Ann Arbor.

1930 Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, MI
James W. Green, 60 (FAG 228920874)
Ruth, 67 (FAG 228921233)
Ruth A., 13
Ralph Brookshire, 35, roomer
Crawford James, 37, roomer

1920 Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, MI
Levisa Green 67
Nina B., 35
Margie Adams, 4, great granddaughter
Ruthie Adams, 3, great granddaughter
Sarah Green, 52, roomer

1920 Detroit, Wayne, MI
Fred S. Adams, 47
Emerson F., 23, son, widowed
Harry E., 36, brother
Bew Harrison, 28, lodger
Roger Johnson, 27, lodger

MI marriages: Gertrude Black, born abt 1899, Ypsilanti, Washtenaw, MI, daughter of Morse Black and Amelia Black, married 23 Dec 1915 to Emerson Adams, born abt 1895, son of Fred and Lena Adams.

MI marriages: Emerson Adams, born abt 1896, Ann Arbor, MI, son of Fred Adams, married 10 Aug 1920, Detroit, MI to Thelma E. Allen, daughter of Allen Allen; divorced 16 May 1921.

MI marriages: Ruth A. Green, daughter of James W. Green and Ruth Knox, married 7 May 1937, Ann Arbor, Washtenaw, MI to James W. Carr.

OH marriages: Ruth Carr, born 1917, married 28 Apr 1943, Wood, OH to Paul L. Spann.