"She was just a badass. There's no other way to describe it."
"She believed if she could tell stories, that would affect people and make them advocate for change," Benton says. "She understood the power of the right story and the right photo and her ability to choose the image to make people do something."
DIG DEEPER
See a few of Gruber's best-known images and watch a TV interview with Ann Curry at the NBC Photoblog
Listen to an NPR interview of Gruber at age 100 by Karen Michel
Aimee Levitt tells "a few more tales from the amazing life of Ruth Gerber" for the Chicago Reader
More stories and interviews by Behind the Lens editor Mike Starling