Rita Williams-Ewing is an American author, lawyer, and former bookstore owner best known as the first wife of New York Knicks legend Patrick Ewing. Long before most fans knew her name, she was a teenage Capitol Hill intern who happened to meet a Georgetown basketball star — a meeting that eventually led to marriage, two novels, a children’s book series, and a pioneering Harlem bookstore that became a cultural landmark.
Quick Bio of Rita Williams-Ewing
| Detail | Information |
| Full Name | Rita Ewing (also referred to as Rita Williams-Ewing) |
| Known For | Author, lawyer, and bookstore co-founder; former wife of NBA legend Patrick Ewing |
| Education | Howard University (internship era); Georgetown law degree reported |
| Met Patrick Ewing | 1983, both age 17/Georgetown student, while interning on Capitol Hill |
| Marriage | Patrick Ewing; married around 1990, separated February 1998 after about 7.5 years |
| Children | Described as a mother of three in publisher bios |
| Notable Works | Homecourt Advantage (1998, with Crystal McCrary-Anthony); Brickhouse (2006); Patrick’s Pals children’s series |
| Business | Co-founder, Hue-Man Bookstore, Harlem (2002) |
Who Is Rita Williams-Ewing?
Rita Williams-Ewing became publicly known in the 1980s and ’90s as the wife of Patrick Ewing, the Hall of Fame center who anchored the New York Knicks for 15 seasons. But her own record — a law degree, two published novels, a children’s book series, and a founding role in one of Harlem’s most important independent bookstores — runs well past that connection. She met Ewing as a teenager working on Capitol Hill, built a family and a public profile alongside his NBA career, and after their 1998 separation, built a second career in publishing and bookselling that had little to do with basketball.
Before the NBA Spotlight
According to a contemporaneous 1998 Washington Post profile (reprinted via the Seattle Times archive), Rita — then going by Rita Ewing in that reporting — was 17 years old in 1983 when she met Patrick Ewing. At the time, she was interning in the Washington office of Sen. Bill Bradley through a Howard University internship program, while Ewing, already a star at Georgetown, was doing summer work with the Senate Finance Committee. The two crossed paths through their respective Capitol Hill jobs. (Some biography sites describe her simply as “an intern in Sen. Bill Bradley’s office” without naming Howard University; the Post’s account ties the internship specifically to her Howard affiliation.)
She later earned a law degree from Georgetown, and publisher and bookstore bios have also credited her with a nursing degree, though a full timeline for both isn’t publicly documented.
Marriage to Patrick Ewing
Patrick Ewing was the No. 1 overall pick in the 1985 NBA Draft and went on to become the face of the Knicks throughout his career. He and Rita married around 1990 and had what publisher bios describe as three children together; she has kept details of her children significantly more private than Ewing’s basketball career ever allowed for him.
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Homecourt Advantage and the 1998 Separation
By the late 1990s, Rita had taken on a new public identity: author. She co-wrote Homecourt Advantage (1998) with her close friend Crystal McCrary-Anthony, then married to NBA guard Greg Anthony. The novel, about the wives and girlfriends surrounding a fictional pro basketball team, drew attention precisely because both authors had direct knowledge of NBA life — prompting speculation about how much was drawn from their own marriages. Both women pushed back on that reading in a Washington Post interview, describing the book as fiction meant to entertain rather than a roman à clef or “revenge” project; Ewing noted it would make little sense to target people she still had relationships with.
That pushback came at a difficult moment: the Post reported that Rita and Patrick had separated in February 1998, after about seven and a half years of marriage, with her divorce attorney issuing a statement describing a mutual hope for an “amicable resolution.” Rita didn’t detail the private reasons for the split publicly.
What the original 1998 reporting adds, and what is frequently left out of later profiles, is context around the separation’s timing: the statement confirming the split came not long after a radio caller alleged an affair between Patrick Ewing and Heather Errico, a Knicks City Dancer who had previously interned on the Howard Stern show. Errico publicly denied being the cause of the marriage’s end, and Rita herself described the affair claim as a rumor and said she held no bitterness. This should be read as a reported allegation that both women involved pushed back on at the time — not an established fact about the cause of the Ewings’ separation.
Kirkus Reviews described Homecourt Advantage as a hard-edged sports drama centered more on the women around the team than the players, and the book has remained in print through later editions.
Building Hue-Man Bookstore in Harlem
In 2002, Rita Williams-Ewing became a founding partner — alongside bookselling veteran Clara Villarosa (who had run the Hue-Man Experience bookstore in Denver for 16 years) and Celeste Johnson, wife of former Knicks player Larry Johnson — of Hue-Man Bookstore, which opened in the Harlem USA retail complex near 125th Street. Publishers Weekly’s contemporaneous coverage put the store at roughly 4,000 square feet with about 7,000 titles sourced largely through Ingram, backed by roughly $1 million in combined private investment and $475,000 in financing from the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone (UMEZ), after about three years of planning. The store quickly became a central gathering place for Black authors and readers in Harlem, not just a retail outlet.
By 2004–2005, Black Enterprise described Hue-Man as a 16-employee business generating about $1.2 million in annual revenue, built from an initial $350,000 in investment capital three years earlier. That same reporting adds two details frequently missing from shorter profiles: co-founder Clara Villarosa left the business in 2003 after early partnership friction, and Marva Allen — an attorney and former 22-year tech-firm executive — joined as a full partner in 2004 and took over daily operations; author and filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles also joined as a fourth partner that year.
Brickhouse and the Patrick’s Pals Series
In 2006, Rita published a second novel, Brickhouse, following Nona Simms, a Harlem gym owner whose business is threatened by city politics and development pressure — a setting drawn from her years immersed in Harlem through Hue-Man. (A few online references, including an NPR segment, discuss the book in connection with 2005 coverage; this article follows the more commonly cited 2006 publication date but flags the minor date discrepancy as unresolved.) Her author bio has also long credited her with creating the Patrick’s Pals children’s book series, extending her writing into books for younger readers.
Life Since the Spotlight Faded
Hue-Man’s original Harlem storefront eventually closed, though the Hue-Man name and associated projects have continued in some form. Rita Williams-Ewing’s public profile has grown considerably quieter since the 2000s; she has not maintained an ongoing media presence, and there’s no reliable basis for claims about her current activities, relationships, or whereabouts circulating on some biography sites.
What Isn’t Reliably Known
Several details about Rita Williams-Ewing are not consistently or independently confirmed: her exact birth date; the full names, ages, and current lives of her three children; the precise timeline and institutions behind her nursing and law degrees; the exact 2006 vs. 2005 publication context for Brickhouse; and any detail of her life, relationships, or career after the mid-2000s. The widely repeated “2003 Hillary Clinton signing” claim specifically should be treated as incorrect based on the stronger documented record of the June 2004 Bill Clinton event.
Final Thoughts
Rita Williams-Ewing’s story is often reduced to “Patrick Ewing’s ex-wife,” but the fuller record shows a woman who moved from a Capitol Hill internship and a Georgetown law degree into published fiction, then helped build one of Harlem’s most significant independent bookstores — one that, for one day in June 2004, became a national media story in its own right when a former U.S. president came to sign copies of his memoir. She did that largely while keeping her marriage, her family, and her life after the spotlight deliberately private.
FAQs About Rita Williams-Ewing
Who is Rita Williams-Ewing?
She’s an American author, lawyer, and bookstore co-founder best known as the first wife of NBA Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing.
How did Rita Williams-Ewing meet Patrick Ewing?
They met in 1983 as 17-year-olds, both working on Capitol Hill — she was a Howard University intern in Sen. Bill Bradley’s office, doing summer work for the Senate Finance Committee while a student at Georgetown.
Why did Rita Williams-Ewing and Patrick Ewing divorce?
They separated in February 1998 after about 7.5 years of marriage. Her attorney cited a hoped-for amicable resolution rather than detailing a cause; a radio-fueled affair allegation involving a Knicks dancer surfaced around the same time but was disputed by both women involved and should be treated as a reported claim, not an established fact.
What is Rita Williams-Ewing’s connection to Hue-Man Bookstore?
She was a founding partner in 2002, alongside Clara Villarosa and Celeste Johnson, and the store became a major hub for Black literature in Harlem.
Did Hillary Clinton really do a signing at Hue-Man Bookstore?
No reliable source confirms that. The well-documented event was a June 2004 signing by former president Bill Clinton for his memoir My Life, which drew roughly 2,000 attendees and sold out the store’s stock in advance — a claim sometimes misreported elsewhere as a 2003 Hillary Clinton signing.
What books has Rita Williams-Ewing written?
Homecourt Advantage (1998, with Crystal McCrary-Anthony), Brickhouse (2006), and the Patrick’s Pals children’s book series.
