We received this email:
Dear Rumpole:
Scarcely 2 blocks from RGB, a woman died last night in hospice care, who is largely responsible for electing dozens of judges in the last 20 years. Without a college degree, Ruby Ferria became the most successful Latin market political consultant in Miami. Until last Monday, she had a daily talk show at La Poderosa where she introduced her clients to her Spanish speaking audience. She worked on the campaigns of William Thomas, Dennis Murphy, Bronwyn Miller, Ivonne Colodny, Jeri Beth Cohen, Bernie Shapiro, and Jacquie Schwartz to mention a few. Ruby gave advice and if you were smart, you took it. Many of her clients became friends and not in a Facebook kind of way. If Ruby called you a friend, it meant she looked into your soul and saw you were the real deal, kind, genuine. In her 30 years or so in politics she saw the good, the bad, and the ugly in people. She understood that people were not perfect and she accepted it. Like she said, even chickens have a dark side. Her wit will remain unmatched. No one will ever fill her shoes, or better said, her six inch heels. If you were lucky enough to have known Ruby, then you have memories that will forever bring you joy. Say a prayer for Ruby Feria tonight, someone in heaven needs a friend and she's been summoned. I will miss you my dearest friend, godspeed.
Anonymous
Rumpole says: Can't say we knew her. We don't dirty our fingers with judicial elections. But a wonderful remembrance.
Perhaps if more of us lawyer types participated in Judicial Elections we would have better Judges
ReplyDeleteI nominate you. I'm too busy and successful to care or spend time.
ReplyDeleteRuby helped me with my 2010 campaign for the circuit court bench. Unlike so many in the campaign consultant business, you didn’t pay Ruby just to keep her off the other candidate’s team. It took a personal connection, not just a check, for her to take you on. Then, if she took you on, she took you under her wing. And though she was tiny, that wing was very broad.
ReplyDeleteRuby accompanied me to scores of events, making introductions and establishing connections that have lasted to this day. She tolerated my poor but earnest Spanish and, more times than I can count, helped me navigate the cross-currents of a city that I thought I knew well, but about which she taught me immeasurably more.
She bonded with my wife over stories of their families in Cuba, amused and upheld my boys, and was a limitless font of vivacious energy and unassailable enthusiasm. Without ever finding the need to say an unkind word about anyone, she became my great champion and, I am proud to say, my friend.
Election Day dawned with both of us more or less certain of the outcome. Ruby was my fan, but she was nobody’s fool. Still, she had a smile on her face when I picked her up at dawn in my battered pickup full of flyers, palm cards, campaign signs and coolers of bottled water. She’d be in and out of the truck all day, and we had learned over the long campaign that this made for a precipitous climb for her. So I brought along one of those little library stools and at every stop I’d get out first and place it for her, like the porter on a train. That flattered and tickled her, and if I did that a 50 times that day, she said “¡gracias señor!” with the same bemused sparkle – the same chispa – every time.
Diminutive and larger than life, elegant but possessed of gritty determination, Old World manners mated to metropolitan savvy, Ruby Feria was the sort of person possible only Miami. We will not see her like again.
Duerme con los angeles, Rubita.
She was my friend. I'm deeply saddened by the news.
Deletenever heard of her. the top and best king (judge) maker was Gerald Schwartz.
ReplyDeleteWell, that's not arrogant or self-absorbed at all.......
ReplyDeleteAnyone have trouble lately having a face to face meeting with an inmate at TGK who you do not yet represent? I was told I would have to use the glass to talk with a potential client today at TGK. Many times in the past, I've been asked to go visit potential clients or even visit another attorney's client on his behalf with no troubles from the good folks at TGK. Rcooper@RichardLCooper.com
ReplyDeleteRuby got me into TGK many times. She was the kind of gal that even a snooty corrections officer couldn't deny. She'll be missed.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous at 3:08, do you have a more appropriate remembrance to offer? Or did you just stop by to me a misery?
ReplyDeleteShe was my friend too. I stumbled on this blog when I was shocked to learn this morning that she had passed away. I got to know Ruby during the year or so that she worked with me at my office specializing in personal injury claims. She was a unique and buoyant person and as often happens in life, I wish I took advantage of more opportunities to get together with her.
ReplyDelete