FRED RUSSELL
Fred Russell was born on September 8, 1901 at Cactus Flat or Lebanon, south of Safford, Arizona to Henry Russell and Hattie Brewer. At the time of Fred's birth they were living in a tent on the desert. His father was called on a Church mission to Kansas and was not home much when Fred was young.
Fred spent his early years in the Gila Valley, moving around every few years. When Fred was twelve the family, without his father, moved by covered wagon from Thatcher to Chandler, going over the newly constructed Roosevelt Dam. This took three days. In the Phoenix area, Fred worked at many jobs to support himself and his impoverished family. Fred's bishop in Chandler, an attorney, inspired Fred to become a lawyer. Fred attended the University of Utah, studying to become a lawyer, where he came to believe the popular secular theories, especially Darwinism (the belief that man sprang from lower animals like monkeys.)
Fred was a good student and would have completed law school, but he had a poor self-image and could not finish a required speech class because he was afraid to speak in front of others. Depressed, he quit college to join his mother, who had moved to California. A woman old enough to be his mother and her two children, Fred's classmates, hitch hiked with him to California. Fred and Mrs. Smith stopped in Las Vegas, Nevada and were married by an LDS bishop. When he met his mother, he was ashamed of what he had done. He secretly left and returned to Arizona to work with his older brothers, but did not feel comfortable around them. He went to Bisbee to work in a copper mine and then attended the college in Tucson, working at the underground mine in Miami during the summer.
Fred obtained a job with the state and was transferred to Eagar, Arizona, where he met Ida Amanda Nelson, who was eight years older than he was. After having his first marriage annulled, Fred and Ida were married in 1926 and they had five children.
Fred was not active in the Church, although he allowed his family to be active. After their marriage Fred graduated from college as a school teacher and taught two years in Pinedale. After this experience, he followed other lines of work, including working a coal mine in Showlow while his family was living in Globe.
During the Great Depression, Fred worked for the federal government at the CCC camp in Clifton, which is where his only son, Fred, Jr., was drowned in the Frisco River. A short time later they moved to Thatcher, where their eldest daughter, Elaine, had rheumatic fever for a year and their youngest daughter, Beverly Ann, died of pneumonia.
Fred then went to work for the State Employment Office in Safford, working there until he retired. After building some apartments in Safford where they lived while his daughters completed school, he bought raw farm land near where he was born in Cactus.
Fred's wife, Ida, died in 1956 and he married Martha Pauline Mullins, a devout Methodist. They lived for over 20 years on the farm, with Fred working hard seven days a week, until they were unable to care for themselves, then they sold the farm and bought a house across the street from his daughter, Elaine, in Thatcher.
While in the process of dictating his life history, Fred re-gained his testimony of the gospel, began attending church, and was ordained a high priest. He went to the temple for the first time at the age of 88, and Ida and his children were sealed to him.
On November 18, 1993, after communicating with Elaine that he would like to be in the Spirit World with his family, Fred quietly passed away. He was buried in the Safford Cemetery next to Ida.