Ruby Duncan, an American rights activist and advocate for low-income families and welfare rights in Las Vegas, Nevada, died on April 26, 2026, at age 93.
Born Ruby Phillips Duncan on June 7, 1932, in Tallulah, Louisiana, she came from a family of sharecroppers and spent much of her early life working in cotton fields and attending school seasonally. She left Louisiana for Las Vegas in 1953 and later worked as a housemaid and hotel maid.
Duncan co-founded Operation Life and served as president of the Clark County Welfare Rights Organization. In the 1970s, she and other Westside mother activists organized a protest that shut down Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Ruby Duncan, 93, American rights activist.