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MY PARENTS RUTH RUSSELL TIM RANDY ROLLY PAM SANDE My brother Russ.... what can I say about him? I didn't know him as a kid as he moved out about the time I was born and joined the Army. Then he was married in 1960 to Mary Lou McKee. They had 3 children, Vicki Sue, Rusty and Beth Ann. I can only remember them coming to visit us in Michigan a few times.
Russ and Mary Lou got divorced and he found a wonderful woman in California named Ruby. Ruby was truly Russ's soul mate. After he met her he seemed to be a changed man. He was always happy and his life turned for the best for him.
Russ was always a clown, a jokester. My mom said that once when Russ was a teenager he was dared to cut his hair into a mohawk and he did it. I imagine my father was not too pleased with him. But that is the way Russ was. He always enjoyed dressing up for Halloween and loved the kids that came around. He also loved to gamble. He and Ruby spent a lot of weekends in Las Vegas. I don't think they ever won anything to write home about, but they had fun and that is the most important thing. I have a really great photo of Russ dressed up for Halloween where he worked at in Santa Barbara, CA. I promise to upload it soon and get it on here. In the meantime, you can look at the photos of him as a child. The first one is him with Ruth, and the other one is him with Tim.
Ruth and Russell as kids
When I needed somewhere to live when I was 20 Russ came through for me. He was the first to show the world as it was, not colored by my mom's rosey lenses or my dad's criticalness of it. He allowed me to grow at my own speed, to explore the world and see what underlies everything. Russ was there for me in so many times of need and at times when I just wanted an older brother to tell me that life was going to be okay. He wasn't the only one, though. Tim was also there for me. More on him later. Russ died when he was 50 yrs old. He had a cerebral hemorrhage. He will always be missed by me.
