Sometimes all we need is someone to rely on. Not necessarily someone to depend on consistently but someone that is sure to be there if you need them. Someone that you know without doubt has you on their mind. I guess I have been more than fortunate when it came to this. But she was more than that. A fragile blossom, but a steel magnolia, and I am not altogether sure how she pulled this combination off.
In a blue and dreary chapel at the local funeral home - you know the scene. First Amazing Grace was played and then Beyond the Sunset, and even after all the hymns I had heard in my life this one was new to me. Buddy, my step-Grandfather chose this song for his wife. Although this was the first I had heard the verses and chorus I did not listen. I was then wondering how life would be without her. But enough about that.
I read once on an old postcard that had been passed through the family: "Myrtle when I return from this war I'm going to ask your Pa for your hand." A message sent from a World War I station by my Great Grandfather, Ollie Russell. Papaw, as my Mother always refers to him, returned from the Great War and fulfilled his promise to his stateside girl. They married in 1919. They had a large family of eight children and my grandmother, "Nannie" was their fifth; born December 16, 1926.
Life in those days was so much different from the days that we know now. In the early years of her life she and her brothers and sisters enjoyed the simple times of the countryside near Isley and Dawson Springs called Menser. Menser had undoubtedly been named for some family who had first settled there. There was no post office, that was in Dawson Springs or Nortonville. In fact their mail box was on the highway not even on the lane where the Russell home was. It was probably staggered among several other boxes and many with the name Russell on them. I think that my Great Grandfather's people had come from North Carolina and spread across this country as so many early settlers did. My vein the family tree ending up in this small community in Western Kentucky. Papaw's parents names were William and Lenora Russell, a couple who also had a large family of mostly boys and one girl. Papaw was one of the younger siblings and as many of his brothers he too settled on the same lane where he grew up.
I have been told that the old Russell Cemetery is deep in the woods beyond that road. I think by now you would have to make your way there on foot. There on stones with inscriptions erased by time are some of my ancestors names. Ancestors that have only now become faces of black and white picture, that only a few can identify. But then and now there lives mattered, as they have paved so many ways for me and my family. These folks were people who worked hard, people of great faith and loyalty to the church - good people - as they say. And all down the lane from their house their children bought and built homes, filling the yards with grandchildren. I can imagine on days with good weather you could see these children running down the road and through the fields, like the current of the streams and the flight of the birds.
The Russell "home place," as described by my family was a nice home with a square parameter and I believe it had a hipped roof. It was built by Papaw Russell I am sure with the help of other family and friends. Across the front of the house sprawled a porch and on one end of that porch there was a trellis on which wisteria climbed. In those days electricity had not yet made it down this particular road. The house was lit at night by oil lamps and heated by a fire, and as far as cooling goes, I suspect the windows were opened and that porch came in handy. I have often heard that Papaw built the barn first and for the first year or so he and Mamaw, as Mom referred to her grandmother, lived there. In fact my Uncle Raymond, their first son was born while they were living in the barn.
Mamaw Russell's name was Myrtle Johnston and she too came from a large family. Mamaw ran the household while Papaw worked at the Veterans Administration Hospital called: "Outwood." She was known as a sweet and loving mother, a good cook, and certainly a resourceful person. Mamaw canned produce from their garden and their orchard to put up for the winter. She quilted to cover their beds and was a good seamstress who made most of her children's clothes. I am sure that the days passed quickly for her when her children were at home because she never ran out of things to do and of course she had several extra hands around to help her out with chores and task. One of the chores that I recall Nannie talking about doing was milking the cows, and you have to get up really early to do this. One of the reasons being because the family would need fresh milk for breakfast. So the chore would definitely have to be done before that meal.
My Aunt Aminell has a picture in her room of all eight children with Mamaw and Papaw. They are all standing right in front of the house: Papaw who was born in 1896, beside Mamaw who was born in 1898 proudly presiding over their family. Nannie's name was Nella Brunette Russell, her brother's and sister's names were as follows: Ollie Raymond, Bessie Rudell, Rhoeller Pauline, William Carroll, Mary Aminell, Joseph Leamon, and Phillip Daniel. If you could see what I see in that photo you'd know why I have to tell this story.
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