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News 12 Staff

ruthbellpart2

Asbury Park celebrated their oldest resident MS Ruth Bell who turned 105 years on July the 18th. We talked about growing up in South Jersey during segregation and the massacre of Black Wall Street in the Greenwood District in Tulsa Oklahoma. Then we chose Tulsa Oklahoma. I thought that was a slap in the face. What did you know about Tulsa Oklahoma? I just recently found out about the Greenwood District. Oh, I uh my mother kept me interested. We always read newspapers. We should have an Afro American paper and uh New Eagle and the papers were like 10 cents and five cents. Wow, that was a long time ago, wasn't it? And uh we always read and of course, my mother was, came up in the segregated South. So she knew about segregation and she also knew the history of what was going on. Did you get to experience segregation as well as a young child? Well, New Jersey was segregated because I live in New York in Ocean County. I saw the Klan marching and Tom you did. And I didn't realize until I was an adult and we were talking about the, in the history class. And um, right, I, I remember those people, some more horses and the white robes and everything. They were, mine went back. My father was a lot older than my mother and we lived on a corner in Tom's River. The house was right on the corner and this particular evening I saw people come to the house and they pull down the shades and they were talking and I was a nosy kid. I got out out the window and I saw these horses and this all this white stuff on top, you know, by a church. And now when I look back, I guess it's like an intimidation thing. I want you to take a look right now. Here at this mural, MS Bell loved traveling the world with her church group here she is seen in Egypt. She had a wonderful time there. She shares all of her experiences coming up at noon.

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ruthbellpart3_2023-07-22-13-16-54

The oldest resident of Asbury Park is a world traveler. Just take a look at this beautiful mural that our graphics department put together. MS Ruth Bell got baptized in Israel. Went to Egypt, mind you people and Africa. Yes, she loves to go. She also traveled to China to watch Hillary Clinton speak. You're very uncomfortable in China. You were watched every minute and you could tell it or you saw it, you saw it like you had to go in the hotel. There was like each floor, there was a guard sitting there. I remember another time I was in a restaurant and I was with the chopsticks and one of the guards came and was politely handed me a fork. That's a good one. That's how close, you know, and, uh, we would try to talk to the uh local people and by the way somebody would come and chase them away. What was it like in Africa? Well, it was, you felt like you're going home, the people. It was so friendly and they were so poor. We went to uh Ghana, you know, that's one of the African countries that the communists didn't get into they kept it, but the people are buried for it. You take, take $100 you come out with an arm full of money and nobody robbed him because there was no place to spend it. Which in a way is a sad commentary, isn't it? And, and it, they, they were friendly. They were glad to see you and everybody's got their hand out on island. We have a place called Take the slaves. They have a church on one floor upstairs and, and sleep downstairs slave floor. Like we had the slave quarters in this country. That's right. Wow. Yeah. And uh then they had the other caves where the unruly slaves were and they would lock them in this little hut like just so high and they put them there and drowned them. And the church was sitting right here that must have been heartbreaking. It was very heartbreaking. So I have a sweater t-shirt right at that time in the river Jordan and the pastor of the church when he baptized it. And one of the women that I know she would like to assist me because I couldn't, you know, I was like 90 99 you were 99 when you got baptized in Israel. I love that you made a choice to do that. Why at that age I had the money and I could afford to go and I would do it. What was that whole experience like that was you know, you sort of got like a out of body experience because you think I'm standing here with Jesus, you know, in the holy land, in the holy land. I told my daughter, I never got a good potato pancake in Israel. So he told me to come to and that's where you got it. I've been to Lake, but I had been like that, but I made better with myself. Don't you just love her? She makes better ones herself. Family and church are very dear to Miss Bell. Tomorrow at 6 a.m. She talks about her relatives, isn't she? Fantastic. Hilda. You learn a lot from her.

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ruthbellpart4_2023-07-23-17-56-10

Came together at Asbury Towers on July the 18th to celebrate MS Ruth Bell turning 105. This World Traveler and Globe Trotter is very popular in her community. She loves her family and her church legislative leaders attended. So did members of the Central Jersey North Shore chapter of the National Council of Negro Women. This great grandmother is the oldest resident of Asbury Park. She received proclamations from the state and the city. Look at that beautiful smile. I love her. She was so much fun to talk to MS Bell was the oldest of 11 Children with two daughters herself. She talked about her immediate family. My mother taught me how to print my name. I knew my address and the funny thing I could do my five time tables and I remember, but I couldn't tie my shoes. I was practicing and my mother was like two doors, three doors visiting my aunt. And I remember I finally tied my shoe, but I ran down and mama, mama, I tied my shoe. See what I've accomplished. She must have been so proud of you. I think he said it's about time. My father was very strict. He wasn't being strict or anything like that. He took me to church. He always took me to Sunday school and in those days they had church at night and my mother would go take me to church with her at night. He was a Methodist and she was, let's back up. You said take you to church at night. My mother used to take me at night on Sunday evening to have church services. Ok. She was a Baptist and my father was a Methodist. When I was a young girl, I used to, uh, I wouldn't, couldn't afford to go to college. And the only job I could get was the domestic and I hated it. I couldn't, I couldn't see my mothers left their Children to go take care of somebody else's Children. And lady asked me, oh, they hardly, if you in high school you get a job because they wanted somebody around their Children for English. And I learned that they want, somebody could talk well with the Children. And, uh, some lady asked me and said, what do you wanna do? Iron or take the baby out? That was the choice she gave you. Ok. So I said, oh, iron and I could not, I was a teenager in high school. I used to work. They would call your mother help us, but you end up did everything. You know, you're supposed to come in and take care of the Children. Take them out but you end up cleaning and did everything, everything you wanted to do, everything I didn't wanna do. Exactly. And, uh, you know, after I married I was married twice it didn't work out. And, uh, I went back to school when I was 54. Congratulations. I was gonna teach that. A librarian job came along. I recruited from the school. That's where I, uh, retired from the public library. And do you realize I've been since I retired in 88 1988? Wow, I've been very fortunate. She is the greatest to talk to. Now. Look at here, this woman loved to travel the world too. Take check this out here. She is in Egypt with the pyramids. Mind you. She also went to Israel and Africa MS Bell. Also loved working with the special needs community. Coming up at nine, her experience with her youngest daughter, Diane.

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ruthbellpart5_2023-07-23-17-56-15

People came together at Asbury Towers on July the 18th to celebrate MS Ruth Bell turning 105. This world traveler is very popular in her community. She loves her family and her church legislative leaders also attended the party. So did members of the Central Jersey North Shore chapter of the National Council of Negro Women. This great grandmother is the oldest resident of Asbury Park. She received proclamations from the state and the city. And this weekend we are celebrating MS Bell. She, as we said, is beloved. She adores the special needs community and has worked extensively with them and it's very close to her heart. Her youngest daughter, Diane, who loved the open sea faced challenges. I worked as a teacher's aide in the bank school in, in Asbury Park. And uh I worked with special needs Children and I read everything that I could find when my daughter was about six years old, a psychiatrist came in to visit her. We had a nine o'clock appointment. He walked in, he was 15 minutes late. He walked by and he never said good morning or anything, but I was rude and he walked and he said something and I, she didn't understand. He says, I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to her. Oh, no, he didn't. Yes, he did. Then he taught, and he taught her, he says, put it an institution because she'll be, she'll never develop more than a three year old. Now, he can tell you more about that. Did he bother to examine her? Talk to her for a few minutes? She didn't understand what he was saying? And he didn't, did, he wouldn't repeat it and what it was? I reported it to the board. Ok. I was gonna say, what steps did you take? Ok. And she was a special needs class. He, he ended up working at the workshop in for 37 years. She take the bus and go back and forth. She was healthy. Wherever I went, she went or if I said you wanna go on a cruise one time I asked her, what did she want for Christmas? I said, you want, uh, I think TV? Or, or go to Disney World is anything else? Somebody had a sense of humor. I said, what about a cruise? She is a cruise, of course, but of course she enjoyed the cruise. What should people know when you think somebody is different from you? When in fact, they just have a gift, a different gift. God, that's all. And she loved her nephew. He could get her to walk any place. But she tell me get a taxi. She make good taxi. She could be a tough little cookie, couldn't she? Oh yeah. And she would plan meals and if she asked me, can you make so and so I said no. And she give me that look and say, I know you're lying honest too. If you want to punish her, tell her you can't go to work today. That was punishment. That was they did. She never made much money, but she loved what she did. She, what she did about the great advice for living your life with Miss Bell.

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ruthbellpart6_2023-07-23-17-56-19

People came together at Asbury Towers on July 18 to celebrate MS Ruth Bell turning 105. This world traveler is very popular in her community. She loves her family and her church legislative leaders attended. So did members of the Central Jersey North Shore chapter of the National Council of Negro Women. We talked about her career and a tough period in her life. We went from depression into the World War Two where we started making money. So we came out of the kitchen, doing domestic work, went to war plan. And as I said, I became an inspector in a metal shop and then I went back to business school and uh I didn't like it. There were a lot of jobs opening up for us and I could be a receptionist and things like that where I couldn't do that before. And after I worked in the office for a while and I worked in a jewelry costume, jewelry place. I photographed the jewelry set up for the showroom and everything like that. Then I got married, had a family quite the rest of me there. And then I uh I moved back, I lived in New York, I moved back to Jersey and uh worked in a factory in Brandon Beach for years and then met the international economic workers. I was like the shop steward and one day we were busy working and the man comes in, he was one of the men that worked in the, where I was, you know, but I, when once the Children got older, I started working in the church and I, I was in, I was in the Sunday school for about 50 some years. What would you say is the thing that's motivated you and kept you going all these 105 years. Well, I worked and work with them and see them develop. I opened a library in Lincoln Village because one side of town had the library and it was too far for them to walk. You know, I got the cooperation from the county library. So we in the building that I lived in, they allowed us to use the basement rooms down there. We painted them. We had him doing homework, karate arts and prayer. I met one boy. He said, you know, he used to say read, read, read. I got a family, I can't read, I can't hold a good job. What is the message you want to leave this generation with based on your experiences in life? Well, I still say mind your own business, that's a good one. Treat people the way you wanna be treated. And there, I can't force you, but there is a supreme being that looks after all of us. And if you have a faith, don't say it, what great advice she has there. I love it. Especially the MYOB. You can see all of my segments with MS Ruth Bell on news 12 dot com and my Facebook page.

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Asbury105NJLE

She is the oldest resident at Asbury Park celebrating a milestone birthday on July the 18th. Do you drink? I take a little nip once in a while. A little nip of what Johnny Walker Black. Excuse me. All right now she is adorable, belly up and hear a preview of her story ahead.

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della711BD_2023-07-11-20-25-44

Ok, so we first aired this story about 105 year old Ruth E Bell over the weekend. So many people are calling about the celebration for this oldest resident of Asbury Park. The event is being moved to a different venue. So her big party will now be held at the Asbury Towers, July 18th. Her birthday from 11 30 AM to 4 p.m. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. There she is with our very own Dela Cruz. Uh Della did sit down with MS Bell. They chatted about her family career life and this important milestone, Miss Bell when you were growing up. Did you ever think you'd make it to this age? No, I didn't, I didn't think I'd make it to 21 and now that you're here, how do you feel? Well, I just feel blessed. I'm the oldest of beloved Children. The last one, the last one that must have been hard though losing everybody. You know, you, you see the young ones before you, you know, you never thought you the youngest kids. You know, you have your only grandson Jason here with us right now. What's he like? Well, I don't know what I'd do without him. He's my, my caretaker. I'm the child now, I'm not the anymore. Do you love the way those roles got reversed? Reversed? Yes. What do you two like to do together? We love to go out and eat together. We go to the movies once in a while. Most of the time we sit and talk about different things. Past present. He has his political views. I have mine. How wonderful is that being able to sit down and have a conversation with her all the knowledge that she can impart. Well, we will have more with Miss Bell on spotlight New Jersey with Dela Cruz in two weekends.

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A proclamation was issued to Ruth E. Bell before her 105th birthday.

Spotlight New Jersey: Ruth Bell, Asbury Park's oldest resident, turns 105

A proclamation was issued to Ruth E. Bell before her 105th birthday.

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Send us your positive story ideas!

‘Now he literally has a part of me.’ Brother donates part of his liver to twin

Healing together: The Hubb in Newark allows young people to process trauma through creativity

Long Branch firefighter saves life of 6-day-old baby in distress

Plainfield schools team with Project Ready for pop-up museum to celebrate Black History Month

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