For my family music has always been a huge part of our lives and it’s one of the classes I taught Charlie when we were #Homeschooling. In August we lost a couple singers including Dolly I would like to share with you.

For my family remembering a singer doesn’t begin with knowing everything about her life. Sometimes it begins with a song. That is what happened when I came across the name Ruby Andrews. Who I had to stop and research and when I got to her songs I knew who she was.

Ruby Andrews was a Chicago soul singer whose music became part of the sound of the 1960s and 1970s. She was known for songs including “You Made a Believer (Out of Me)” and “Casanova (Your Playing Days Are Over).”

And when I saw her name, I had to stop and think. Do I know Ruby Andrews? Honestly, I can’t tell you that I followed her entire career. But I can tell you something else. I know that song. Do you?

And sometimes that’s enough to bring a whole period of your life rushing back. Which music does for me and it makes me stop and think and sometimes I end up remembering something about the person I had forgotten about.

The I end up hearing there song in my head suddenly I’m not sitting where I was anymore. I’m younger and I’m somewhere else remembering the people, the places and the years when that music was part of everyday life.

That’s what I love about looking back at the musicians we are losing. It isn’t always about being able to list every album they recorded. It isn’t about pretending that every artist was our favorite. Sometimes it’s simply about recognizing a song and realizing:

“Oh, I remember that.”

Ruby Andrews was born Ruby Mae Stackhouse in Mississippi and grew up in Chicago, where she became part of the City’s rich soul-music community. Her recordings included “You Made a Believer (Out of Me),” “Casanova (Your Playing Days Are Over)” and “Everybody Saw You.”

She died August 13, 2026, at the age of 79. And that brings me back to the song. I don’t need to tell you that Ruby Andrews was the soundtrack to my entire childhood. She wasn’t.

But when I hear a song I recognize from those years, it reminds me that music was always around us. There were songs playing on the radio. Songs playing in the car. Songs playing while people were cooking, cleaning, getting ready to go somewhere or simply living their everyday lives.

And somewhere in all of that music was Ruby Andrews. So today, I’m not going to pretend I knew every chapter of her story. Instead, I’m going to do something much simpler. I’m going to remember the song.

Because sometimes a song is all it takes to remind us of a time we thought we’d forgotten. And maybe that’s one of the greatest gifts music gives us. It remembers for us allowing us to remember things we had forgotten.

Thank you,

Glenda, Charlie and David Cates