Early Years
Bully-Cummings was born in Japan, the second-oldest of eight children of an African American repairman and a Japanese housewife. Her parents met when her father was serving in the U.S. Army as part of the American Occupation forces. The family settled in Detroit, her Mississippi-born father's adopted hometown, before she turned two.
The family struggled financially and at one point the large family lived in a one-bedroom apartment. However, Chief Bully-Cummings credits her father with encouraging her, her six sisters, and one brother to get their education and pursue whatever they wanted.
While in high school she worked at a movie theater and between graduating from high school and going into the police force in 1977 she worked as an administrative assistant at Redford High School and sold real estate.
Read more about this topic: Ella Bully-Cummings
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