Ruth Morand Baham
Biographical Statement
Ruth Morand Baham was born November 10, 1920 in New Orleans, Louisiana to Delmar and Louise Morand. As a teenager, she worked evenings in the small grocery store and sandwich shop owned and operated by her parents. It was also during this time that she began compiling scrapbooks consisting of the accomplishments of Black Americans listed in Black owned newspapers such as the Louisiana Weekly, the Chicago Defender, and the Pittsburgh Courier. In 1940, she graduated from McDonogh 35 High School and in 1941 from the YMCA School of Commerce. She attended Dillard University for a year and a half starting in 1942. In 1943, she married poet, writer, historian and folklorist Marcus Christian though they would soon separate. In 1944, Baham travelled to Illinois to work as a government typist at the Chicago Signal Depot. She remained there until after World War II ended in 1945 when she returned to New Orleans. She and Christian divorced in the early 1950s. She then married Vernon Louis Baham with whom she would have three daughters.
Baham continued her hobby of collecting items about the achievements of African Americans in New Orleans. She searched local libraries—particularly the Dryades Street library branch—for information she could not find in the papers. She would borrow books and transcribe the information using her typewriter. She also enjoyed movies and live shows that featured talented African Americans and collected ephemera related to them.
Baham died June 16, 2011 at her home in Fremont, California at the age of 90. She had lived in New Orleans for 83 years.