BEVERLY ANN RUSSELL
Beverly Ann Russell was the fifth and last child born to Ida Nelson and Fred Russell. She was born on January 10, 1936 in Clifton, Grenelee County, Arizona.
The Russell family was living in Clifton, where her father was a counselor at the CCC Camp there. When Beverly Ann was three months old, her brother, Freddy, who was eight, was accidentally drowned in the Frisco (San Francisco) River, which runs through Clifton.
Following Freddy’s tragic death on March 24, 1936, the family soon moved to Thatcher, some 46 miles south west. They rented a large family home from “Aunt” Sarah Hunt, located on the main highway, one block from the college. Ida had rented from Aunt Sarah when she was a student at the college many years before. Here the Russells started taking in college boys, with Ida preparing three big meals a day, to earn a living, which was very difficult during the Great Depression of the 1930's.
In the biography of her mother, Jeanne tells of a special experience she had while Beverly Ann was being nursed by their mother. Jeanne writes, “I can still remember the clean smell of her soft blanket and nightgown; she was so warm and cuddly. How I loved her!”
Elaine tells that her family went for a picnic on Mt. Graham (probably a rare thing for the Russell family to do). This would have been in June of 1936. After returning from the outing, five month old Beverly Ann became sick with a high fever. The old Army doctor used by the Russell family came to their home and diagnosed pneumonia. There were no antibiotics available, at least in SE Arizona, at that time. To try to bring down her fever, Beverly Ann was placed with a fan blowing air over ice directly at her. Nine year old Elaine, said this was very difficult for her to witness–she was sure it would kill her little sister. She pleaded with her parents, but they were following the doctor’s orders.
Beverly Ann died on June 17, 1936, only three moths after he older brother, Freddy, was drowned.
As they did following Freddy’s tragic death, they took Beverly Ann’s little body to Mesa, where she was buried next to Freddy in the City Cemetery. Grandma Harriet Russell took charge, as usual. Later Beverly Ann’s body was exhumed, along with Freddy’s, and both were moved to the City Cemetery on the hill south of Safford, in a plot where her parents were later buried.
When the Fred Russell family was sealed together for eternity in the Mesa Temple in 1990, a granddaughter, Renee McBride Hansen, says she saw her grandmother, Ida Amanda Nelson, and her aunt, Beverly Ann, who had already been in the Spirit World for 54 years, holding hands, walk into the sealing room prior to that sacred ordinance. She witnessed that Beverly Ann was tall and had dark hair, and seemed to be at peace.