David Ruffin (1941-1991) was an American R&B singer. He was the tenor and lead singer of The Temptations from 1964 to 1968. He is the lead singer of such hit songs as:
- 1964: My Girl
- 1966: I’m Losing You
- 1967: I Wish it Would Rain
- 1968: Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
- 1969: My Whole World Ended
- 1975: Walk Away From Love
He did all of them on the Motown record label and all but the last two with the Temptations.
He had a rough voice and wore glasses with thick, dark rims, which became something of a trademark for him. He used to go with Tammi Terrell, the one who sang so many songs with Marvin Gaye.
He was fired from the Temptations in 1968. His cocaine habit made it hard for him to show up to work on time and he became so full of himself that he would refuse to ride in the bus with the others and wanted the Temptations to be named “David Ruffin and the Temptations”. Not only was he hard to work with, but he also asked uncomfortable questions about where all the money was going. Dennis Edwards took his place.
In the 1970s he sang on his own, but still for Motown since he was under contract to them. He had some hits, but his cocaine habit and the lack of support from Motown made it hard.
He left Motown in 1977 and continued to record and perform right up to the end of his life. In the 1980s he performed again with the Temptations and then separately with Eddie Kendricks, also a one-time singer of the Temptations, and later with both Kendricks and Dennis Edwards.
At Live Aid in 1985 he performed with Eddie Kendricks and two fans named Hall & Oates. Although a hero to Daryl Hall, Hall had little patience for Ruffin’s drug habit.
It was crack cocaine that killed Ruffin in the end, at age 50.
Ruffin was born in Whynot, Mississippi, not far from Meridian. He never knew his mother: she died when he was still a baby. He was the son of a strict Baptist minister, growing up singing gospel music. In 1955 at age 14 he left home and headed for Memphis. There he joined the gospel scene. He knew the Staple Singers and the Womack brothers. Ruffin himself became part of Dixie Nightingales – not to be confused with the much more famous Dixie Hummingbirds.
Two years later he moved on and came to Detroit, where his brother Jimmy was a singer. There Ruffin started singing for a record label owned by a sister of Berry Gordy. It would later become part of Motown.
In 1964 he joined the Temptations: their tenor had just been fired and Ruffin was a good performer on stage, so they hired him.
At first he was meant to be a backing singer with Eddie Kendricks as lead, but then in 1964 Smokey Robinson wrote a song just for his voice: “My Girl”. It was a huge hit and the rest is history.
See also:
I am compelled to change the subject briefly to direct readers to this Hitch piece:
http://www.slate.com/id/2202163/
I have found myself frequently in disagreement with Hitch. He is challenging, ornery, pugnacious as hell and not afraid to put his neck on the chopping block. This time, I agree with him on many of his points.
As to David Ruffin, there is no discounting his contribution to the world of great R&B performances. And he wasn’t an idiot savant like Snoop Dog. He came by his chops and his stage presence and his delivery the hard way, through years and years of the gospel circuit. The world these days is sorely lacking becuase of the dearth of singers like this.
At that same time, and not to discount the role played in his tragic trajectory by his own personal demons, Ruffin’s story is the story of Motown and Berry Gordy writ large. Berry was, if anything, eager to chew up and spit out his talent. The B side of Gordy’s slick stage productions was a rat’s nest of adultery, drug use, violence and intimidation, graft, and other forms of dirty dealing. Berry was a pimp in the truest form, and the talented artists who were his product generally suffered the worse for the association with him. David Ruffin perhaps being Exhibit A.
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I read Christopher Hitchens’s column last night. I mostly agree with it too. I just posted part of it and the link. Thanks for reminding me about it.
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So that’s David Ruffin. The guy that played him in the Temptation (I think his name is Leon something. One of my favorite actors) looked way better then the real one. I love that movie.
Abagond, I’m loving your web blogs man. Keep it up!
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Thanks.
You do not remember Leon’s last name (Robinson) because his stage name is just that – Leon:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Robinson
Hollywood made David Ruffin better looking, but they also gave him a sadder death – something Ruffin’s family did not like!
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How can you say that Leon looks better than David Ruffin when he (Leon) looks like David’s twin. Have you ever seen earlier photos of David? I suggest you review them,then make your verdict. David and Leon looks just alike. When I saw the Temptations movie, if I just hadn’t known any better I would have sworn that David had been reincarnate through Leon. I love the both of them. I grew up with every song/album the Tempts made. I was eight years old and I would look at David so admirably, not a school girl crush, just in my heart I knew he was a very sweet individual and a christian. So when you start comparing people ask yourself How do I look?
Resprctfully,
Cora
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it’s funny how a person is depicted in a movie and in the name of it’s a true story every detail is believed. Leon is a good actor, but who wrote the script and from who’s notes. There is much to be desired about David Ruffin. While the movie did not say, he had a separate contract, he was close friends the big family. What the movie did not stress was JEALOUSY, because David was the MAN. Somebody was Jealousy. As a kid I knew something was wrong when David left. It funny how mean, nasty, ole Jealous people sleep at night. Seems nothing’s new in the music industry. I wish somebody would tell the truth. Why did Eddie and Dennis leave. Why is it you can find other group members following David with the balls to lead classics. comments: u r wrong, just can’t be done, ’cause Ruff was the MAN. There will never be another!!!
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Will respond to all posts at this site only.
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Excellent writing, Blanc2, and precisely reflective of my feelings about Gordy. I really love the way you expressed so much so succinctly, yet expressively in the paragraph about Berry & Ruffin. I might suggest that Flo Ballard was Gordy’s Exhibit A, and Ruffin the B.
I really wish someone would make a follow-up to Otis’s Temptations movie, with a sensitive, in-depth follow-up to the stories of Ruffin & Kendricks. I had hoped for such in the Street Gold video, but it is a charming collection of footage, not particularly revealing except what one may infer by close observation.
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Very interesting conversation here. I couldn’t agree more about Gordy pimping his artists. Old habits die hard, they say. But I do disagree on the major point about David and Leon looking identical. Even though Hollywood did all they could to give that illusion, there is no way their noses are even similar! Having Native American blood, David’s nose had a lovely “hook” and was so beautiful–to me. Leon’s nose is wider. I would never get them confused–even in the dark!
Also, please remember that it was just a movie meant to entertain. It was NOT a documentary. I have written a book about my life with him (and without him). There may yet someday be a movie or a play that is more true. Yes, Otis wrote the book from which the movie was made (for which he did interview me, but my words were too real for him). But I’m sure he lost any creative control when he sold it. And Suzanne DePasse (and company) who directed it did not ask a single family member for a consult! And it shows!
He did not die the idiotic way they depicted it. Otis would have been the last one to know how David died anyway. It seems like they just made up an ending. Yes, he died of an overdose, but was taken to the hospital, not pushed out of a moving vehicle like a bag of trash.
Well, whether my movie is ever made or not, know that David had a family who loved him.
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Oops, meant to say Suzanne “produced” (whatever that meant in that case), not directed.
If you’d like to email me directly it’s
gsr0943 at yahoo dot com
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was Genna Sapia-Ruffin white or black? because she look white but then again she look black! I am kind of confused because I could have sworn I had read something about her being mixed or something like that I’m not completely sure! Please help specify her ethnicity to me if you can!
Lexis
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Excellent question. David Ruffin himself wondered about that too.
According to her book, “A Memoir: David Ruffin – My Temptation” (2003), her mother was half Dutch and half Irish and her father was Sicilian, which would make her look darker than most whites, especially since she looked more like him than her mother.
On the other hand, there is a story that just about the time her mother got pregnant her father killed a black guy, who may have been the true father.
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Hey, this was a good one abagond, once again!
And Genna made a good point there: even if the movie is based on “true events” or “biography” or what ever, it is still a movie. Movie is a product of the director, actors, writers and producers etc. It is a movie!
A Documentary is a bit different but lets not forget that it is also somebodys take on the what ever subject it is handling.
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As much of a great voice David Ruffin was, I still can’t respect him as a man
he was never reliable/promising when it came to shows the temptations had performed.
was on drugs. worst of all he was abusive to the beautiful talented signer Tammi Terrell
who died eventually early life from the tumors she was trying to fight in her midlife.
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This so-called wife of David Ruffin, was not his ‘wife’. If she had such a hard time with Ruff, why is she choosing to use his last name? It’s all about capitalizing on the man’s name and the money she could possibly earn. She’ll never make me believe that David Jr is Ruffins’ biological child. He looks nothing like him. He would look more like him now in his younger years as David looked, than when David Sr was older; but he doesn”t. None of the class, features, talent or voice. So he is dark, it is apparent she liked black men so that proves nothing. If only DNA was prevalent in those days.
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Since 2000 when I first came online, I have been saying all over cyberspace that I was NOT his wife. That’s old news, Bobbie. Boring. FYI (though I owe you no explanation) I first took his last name in tribute and to have the same last name as our child. Obviously you never read either of my books. Then it became something I needed to have to conduct MY business (not yours). It’s no secret. Your type REALLY makes me laugh. OMG. I don’t NEED to MAKE YOU “BELIEVE THAT DAVID JR IS RUFFIN’S BIOLOGICAL CHILD”!!! LOL. I don’t need DNA; I have a birth certificate that David Senior signed. Will YOU ever see it? NO. Is it the business of anyone other than the Ruffin family? NO. NO. NO. And don’t call him “Ruff”. You don’t know him like that.
I’m so sick of pathetic haters with no life of their own. Please don’t buy my books! There would be nothing in there that would encourage or inspire you.
By the way, I think it’s YOU that needs to check your DNA. You looked in the mirror lately? Ha–ha–ha.
P.S. Go to hell, kiss my ass, and have a nice day.
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Alexis and Agabond: I’ve recently concluded that since my mother’s husband (my Italian father) left me a lot of money when he died thirty-some years ago, he was indeed my father. Coming from his culture, I know that if he’d had any doubt that I was his daughter, I he would have never left me money–no DNA necessary. ;o) Thus, I’ve concluded that the story about the black kid on the bike wasn’t true. And yes, I do refer to myself as “dark white”, Agabond. Good observation. And I don’t look typical “white”. At this point in my life, it’s a relief to just be who and/or whatever I am. The culture was different back then–ask your grandparents. I guess I felt society would accept us better if I weren’t white. I’m glad to be on this side of all that. In some ways, I miss him. Of course, blessedly there are still the children and grandchildren that I’m involved with. And they are not “fans”! LOL. It’s very different with the family. No cyber-bullies. No pressure. No explanations needed. No HATERS! He was their dad. So they all already know. Most of the grands have obviously been born since his death, so they didn’t know him. But he is ‘granddad’ nonetheless. I don’t want them to be caught up in the cyber-hype. I do my bit to try and keep them balanced. What can I say. I told my story. Like it or lump it. So there you go…
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Leon has a flat nose. David had an American Indian nose. Entirely different look.
Respectfully,
Genna
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@ Genna: a birth certificate proves nothing. There are many men walking around with their name on childrens’ birth certificates & they are not the father. They were fooled into believing they were. And by the way, RUFF was a public figure & in so many ways belonged to the people. He has been referred to by that name on many occasions by lots of bloggers so what’s the big deal? When ever YOU put YOUR life and YOUR business out in the open, don’t be so sensitive when people comment, whether it is flattering or critiquing. Remember, YOU put it out there. I had never heard of you before the ‘movie’, and all of a sudden there’s this ‘MY TEMPTATION’ book. You should have written it while he was alive so he could have spoken for himself. As it is, it’s all what YOU say. The man is dead and can’t answer for himself. And another thing, you be careful inviting someone to your A$$ & telling them to go to hell. It doesn’t make for a good witness does it ‘ born again christian’?
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Whatever, Bobbie. I know from experience that there is no sense in trying to be logical with an illogical or ignorant person.
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Genna there will always be haters. Pay it no mind and wish them love. I think what is important is the lessons learned from the past. Hollywood doesn’t change people as much as it enables people..often times to head down more self destructive paths than we could go down without the fame. I think we should learn from his life as a lesson..The ironic thing is that I just read today that Michael Jackson offered to pay for David’s funeral. Maybe he could understand the pain of addiction even though he would struggle with his own. I do know that addiction touches all of our lives..and I have lost many family members to it..including my uncle last year. I hope that people like Charlie Sheen could look at David’s life as a reason to get clean..because it’s those who are left behind to pick up the pieces who hurt most.
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Genna…I agree with you. You don’t have to prove anything to anybody. They are concerning themselves with things that are none of their business. They need to get a life. Did these haters know Mr. Ruffin personally? They need to realize that there are always two sides to every story.
I have seen the movie and after reading up all that I could find on David Ruffin, I don’t think that they did a good job.
Mr. Ruffin left us with beautiful music and that is enough for me!
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Boobie tell the truth. Some folks think they can fool anybody. it’s funny how people start calling names after they make the decision to tell the WHOLE WORLD their business in a poorly written so-called ‘book’ but call them ignorant or illogical because you’re not kissing their ass or stanning for them. If it wasn’t for David, nobody would have known that chick’s name. There is nothing that ‘fake wannabe Ruffin wife/stalker’ that anyone has to ‘hate’. That’s tired line is usually reserved for folks who don’t have anything to back up their lame arguments.
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Blanc2: Your is post on the money. Glad that you are not one of these ‘starry eyed’ fans who think that everything is the artist’s ‘fault’ and that BG was nothing more than a business man. His own ex-wife called him, ‘a thief of dreams’. But you’ll never hear the real story of BG until he has departed from this planet.
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Genna if your father left you so much money, use it instead of trying to promote that gossip riddled, jealous and hatred filled trashy book? Give some of that money to your son, so that he can stop making a fool of his big, goofy, non talented self ! Why are you so hungry for attention?? You are not special !!! Just one of many many women who slept with David Ruffin. It’s just that the other women are decent enough to not scream to the world, “that I slept with a married man”. You are one DISRESPECT whore. I also think that Jimmy Ruffin could be your son’s real father. They both have two left feet.
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Hate and mean spiritedness is such an ugly thing! If you weren’t there to witness any of Genna and David’s life together, who are you to question it!? The mans personal life is not ours to debate. He was a living human being that loved, fathered and enjoyed his life. I know Genna personally and it makes me angry when people have nothing better to do than cast people down.Focus on being a productive person. Negativity is totally unproductive. 2Chronicles 20:17 states that God said people wouldn’t have to fight the battles of life, that God will fight them for you. All we have to do is position ourselves. Well I’m sure Genna is in position. Where are you? Get right with God get yourself in position. There are to many battles you have to face. don’t think you can do it by yourself.
Lessee Mae
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Lesse, sorry you are angry but I’m angry too. People cannot comment on this website without Genna interfering? She has interfered in peoples lives all of her life! When you put your life out in the public’s eye and write books trashing everyone in it, expect others to respond. Just like you know Genna, I knew David and this woman has stalked David, harassed his lovely wife Sandra, and was a part-time mother to David jr.Genna is the BOLDEST person I know. She’s on this site calling Berry Gordy a pimp. BG is no different from any other boss who owns their own business. She doesn’t know how to shut her funky mouth!!! Then she tells someone on here to “to shut the hell up” and “kiss her ass”??? Is this the way born again christians talk??? Well, after you’ve been whoring all your life with married men, chasing them from city to city, destroying family units and abandoning your son, there is nothing else to do but try GOD. Unless Genna has changed drastically, I am not buying it!!! Good gimmick!!!
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Oh please Leessee Mae! Spare us your sanctimonious bs. The wanna be widow’s whole book was mean spirited and ugly. She called Ruffin everything except a child of God. Then she deceitful promotes her book as a ‘love story’ when all she did was dogged out all the people that were in Ruffin’s life. When you promote negativity, prepare for the backlash. How come you didn’t mention how she broke up his marriage to Sandra and literally flaunts it around like it’s no big deal. Then you wanna get up here and tell to folks be ‘productive’? Why didn’t the wanna be widow spend her life being ‘productive’ instead of peddling that trash she calls a book? Then she has the nerve to re-write the same book, probably gleaming information from David’s brother Dr. Quincy’s book and try to promote it as being more ‘balanced’. Who wants to read the same trash twice?? Out here hustling Ruffin’s name in effort to deceive the public that she was his ‘wife’ and to make money off his name. It was sickening to watch her bitter arse on Unsung and I’m glad that the family is stepping up to put her in her place!
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Genna’s nonsense about Ruffin’s ‘Indian nose’ is just plain stupid. His nose could have easily come from his father’s side, simply because of his father’s name ‘Ruffin’, which is European. Ever heard of something called ‘slavery’, genna??? There is no way to tell by the shape of a nose, if it is Indian, European or African, for that matter. Not all Africans who brought in chains had round faces/flat noses. Some also have straight noses/long faces/fine hair, etc. Besides being a poor writer, genetics is not your strongest suit either!
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Lisa: u are right Genna and her son are both hungry for attention. I don’t understand why David’s daughters and ex-wife let this woman and her son speak so much about their father’s/husband’s legacy. Personnally I am sick of seeing and hearing from the mother and son duo.
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Dennis, unlike Genna, David’s ex is a retiree and her children all work. They have lives. They are not like Genna and jr, running around trying to hustle David’s name for a dollar. Out of all of the women that David had, it seems like Genna was the one with no career or job. All of the other women David had, had something to fall back on and they are not running around trying to lay claim to his legacy. But Sandra and her daughters are speaking up. They just need to have people who are willing to give them a platform, like they give genna.
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Simone: U have a piont. I guess that’s why Genna sells avon. Not knocking avon, but this old lady has to hustle David’s name, lies, books and anything else she can create in order to survive. David’s other women did have careers, jobs and lives outside of Ruffin. They can live out their lives with pride and dignity. They don’t have to trash David’s name for 50 cent.
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Dennis, Amen, preach. I hear you and agree with everything you have said. And Leese Mae is aka Genna Sapia
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@ pam. I am not surprised that Genna could not stay off here. Apparently she had to create an alias, leese mae. Still trying to ‘fool’ people.
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@ Bobby, I also agree with everything that you wrote too!!! you are on the money, very wise and very intelligent !!! This Genna woman really gets under my skin !!! She wrote badly about my mother and it was all LIES !!! I am FURIOUS !!! I think most people are on to this pathetic, poor excuse for a human being.
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Lisa / Dennis / Pam
Are banned from this site for using sock puppets on the David Ruffin thread. They were coming from the same computer.
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I am currently watching The Temptations movie for the 50 billionth time and was looking up different things about the actors as well as actual people as they would come to mind. In doing so I ran across this website. I must say the comments here have been both enlightening and entertaining.
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I so enjoyed this conversation, talk about great entertainment. Where can I get a copy of Dr. Quincy Ruffin’s book Mississippi Tears, does anyone know. I tried all the local sites, none have it
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Nobody’s a bigger fan to David Ruffin than I am but how can you all say Genna broke up his marriage to Sandra?Lets see I think David had a little bit to do with it too,I’m sure there were more before Gina and plenty after,a players a player,and David was one,but he also gave all of us his music and thats all he should be remembered for, the talent God gave him,how lucky all of us are to have his music.. Leave Gina alone,It cant make you feel better to talk badly about her,and lets face it ladies say what you will put yourself in her place would you,tell David Ruffin no I cant go out with you your married..Please we all know better,but come on its David….
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David Ruffin was a Great Singer, I Loved his Style, his Presence, his Everything. It would have been a Great honor to have known him, to have known all the Singers’ of the past. I watched a Documentary on David and found it very interesting. Interesting to know of all the women he had been involved with and all the Demons’ that controlled part of his life, in which many of us can relate to. As far as him having had Babies’ by different women, no matter them being white or black that was Reality then and this is Reality now, that Men are going to be Men and they are only going to do what you allow to do to them.
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He was talented and sick drug addicted
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G. E. Mulder: Of course, David is just as culpable in the dissolution of his marriage but genna calls herself a ‘saint’ in the book as well as mocks Sandra for being with her husband. Nobody says that David didn’t have other women but genna is the ONLY one who wrote a book about their relationship! So before you say, leave genna alone, why doesn’t she stop flouncing around the internet, trying to lay claim to a man who never married her yet she literally steals his name to make a living ! As a woman, I CANNOT relate to genna’s foolishness. If a man treated me as bad as genna claims David did, I sure as hell would try to get far away from him and HIS name. That whole idea about being in her place is just plain sick!
Brenda Watts: the documentary did not do David justice. The same three headed negative culprits got way too much air time, spewing the same nonsense. The segment never disclosed that David had sued Motown to escape the peonage system that BG set up for his artists. David had much more depth than what that segment portrayed. His family is coming out with a book that will shed light on who David really was.
Another thing: I love Dennis Edwards but he was hypocritical to talk about David’s drug addiction when he was the one who introduced David to crack!
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Does anybody know where I can buy Mississippi Tears by Dr. Quincy Ruffin? I think that compilation is more accurate. I’m doing a research paper on the late David Ruffin coolest tenor to ever do it.
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david ruffin has daughters, they all look like their father david ruffin. This david ruffin jr. needs to go find his real daddy. stop trashing stating that David Eli Ruffin is his daddy.
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David Ruffin was THE TEMPTATIONS! That voice and presence! His girls look exactly like him and Ruffin Jr. sorta. There are many talented, educated and lovable people who get hooked on drugs. That doesnt take away from their God given talents. I wish he could have gotten off the drugs and stayed off. Crack is a horrible drug. I have asked people I know who continue to start and stop and even they dont know why they do it. As Gil Scott Heron said there is so much good in the best of us and so much bad in the best of us. To Genna, I dont know you and all I can say is if someone had treated me as bad as you say David treated you the last thing I would want is his name.
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Genna- I don’t know whether you will read this of not….. but your sons name was not David Ruffin, Jr. He changed it from David Eric Little, to David Ruffin, Jr. so when you say you changed your name in tribute….it appears that both of you changed your name, and David is not listed as the birth father…I’m just sayin!
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I read in another post that Genna could not prove the son she claims is David Ruffin is actually his. Is that true?
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The trouble with black men is that before they become famous they had no problems dating beautiful black women.
As soon as they become famous they seem to think black women is not good enough for them, here they go dating white women who has nothing. These white women get pregnant or marry them and dump them and bingo instant riches and fame.
I am not prejudice but it’s happen to often but I am not going to start calling these famous black celebrity names. I do not feel sorry for them and if Genna can profit off David Ruffin ignorant mistakes by dating her and he knew he was a married man, let her. I hope his real wife got sense enough to do the same thing. True David was a very good looking man and I loved his voice there will be no other. So did Eddie Kendrick. White women code is (DPTDR). Date them, get Pregnant. Trap them. Dump them and Riches.
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Who will want to buy a book about David Ruffin with an old ugly white woman holding an album. Genna is so disrespectful. Just disappear Genna nobody is interested in you. You say you have David Ruffin only son, well to tell the truth I seen him and he do not have any of David Ruffin features at all, he do not look nothing like him and he cannot sing at all. David Ruffin must have been drunk or something when you got him to sign that birth certificate and he probably do not remember doing it. You are still in love with David Ruffin and you are mad because he never loved you. Do me a favor find your son real father and stop disrespecting David Ruffin real wife and real children. Get a life of your own you and your son. Your son nearly fifty years old and have not done nothing but go everywhere trying to be like David Ruffin and you look about ninety, stop wasting you all time trying to fit in a world where you and your son Is not wanted.
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Some of the comments above are just mean-spirited. Sheesh. How the hell do you rest know between David and all his relations? I found from search engine of Genna’s name and it revealed some pics with her, David and their son. Well, if that isn’t enough proof that junior was his own, then I don’t know what to make of it knowing full well you’re being irrational about your aggression towards somebody you had hardly known in your life. Seriously.
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