Biography/History:

Ruby Elizabeth Stutts was born in Anding, Yazoo County, Mississippi, on February 27, 1908. She was the daughter of Thomas Franklin Stutts and Rossie Cowan Stutts. The couple had two sets of twins. Stutts attended Utica Institute in Utica, Hinds County, Mississippi, where she graduated Valedictorian of her senior class in 1925. Stutts enrolled in Alcorn College in Lorman, Jefferson County, Mississippi, in the same year and graduated as Valedictorian there in 1929. Following graduation from Alcorn, Stutts went to Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, as a Julius Rosenwald Fellow and in 1930 attained the degree of bachelor of science in library science.

Stutts returned to her alma mater in the fall of 1930 as the head librarian at Alcorn College. In the summer of 1930, she served as the acting librarian at the Atlanta Public Library in Atlanta, Georgia. Before returning to her position as head librarian at Alcorn, a position she held until 1945, Stutts married educator and businessman Meredith Jerry Lyells on September 13, 1931. Ruby Lyells took a leave of absence from Alcorn to enroll at the University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, where she obtained a Masters of Arts library degree in 1942. Lyells was the first professionally-trained African American librarian in the state of Mississippi. Lyells served as a special librarian assistant at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, in 1945. After moving to Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, Lyells served as the head librarian at Jackson State University from 1945 to 1947 and at the Jackson Municipal Library from 1951 to 1955. Lyells also served as president of the Mississippi State Federation of Colored Women from 1944 to 1948. She became involved in the Civil Rights Movement in 1955 when she joined the Mississippi Council on Human Relations, serving as the organization’s executive director and secretary-treasurer from 1955 to 1959. She was also a druggist and co-owner of a drug store from 1955 to 1969.

Lyells was a known Republican, she attended the Republican National Convention in 1952. She was invited to the inauguration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. In 1970 she served on the Advisory Committee of the co-chairman of the Republican National Convention. By 1971, Lyells was appointed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to a bi-racial committee charged with drafting a desegregation plan for the Jackson Public School System. Lyells explored political opportunities by seeking the candidacy for the Mississippi Senate in 1975. On November 10, 1980, Lyells was sworn into her post as the first African American jury commissioner in the state of Mississippi.

Lyells was affiliated with other social and political clubs such as the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, where she served as president of the Beta Delta Omega Chapter; the League of Women Voters; the American Association of University Women; the Church Women United, the Hinds County Republican Women’s Clubs, and the Mary Church Terrell Literary Club. Lyells remained steadfast in her dedication to education by serving on the board of trustees of Prentiss Institute in Prentiss, Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi. On May 19, 1968, they named the library building after Lyells and conferred on her an honorary doctorate in humanities.

Lyells wrote many articles that were published in journals such as Mississippi Educational Journal, Library Journal, Vital Speeches and The Journal of Negro Education. She is also listed in many publications, including Marquis’ Who’s Who and The World’s Who’s Who of Women, and Local People: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Mississippi by John Dittmer. Lyells died in Ridgeland, Madison County, Mississippi, on December 22, 1994.