A memorial for actress and civil rights activist Ruby Dee is scheduled to begin Saturday, September 20 at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. CT. The service will be held at the Riverside Church in New York and will feature music by Alicia Keys and Audra McDonald, reflections by former Mayor David Dinkins and Sonia Sanchez, and a eulogy by Harry Belafonte. Dee died June 11 at 91.
Dee’s poetry and prose will be read by Angela Bassett, Tyne Daly, Kim Fields, S. Epatha Merkerson, Phylicia Rashad, Pauletta Washington and Lynn Whitfield. Musical tributes will be performed by Keys, McDonald, Wynton Marsalis and Peter Yarrow.
Dee’s long career earned her an Emmy, a Grammy, two Screen Actors Guild awards, the Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Art and an Oscar nomination.
