Mary Frances Russell surrounded by daughters, granddaughters and great-granddaughters wearing her vintage clothing
Mary Frances Russell has plenty of reasons to celebrate. As the unofficial Queen of Lake Highlands, Russell knows just about everyone and remembers just about everything. At her recent 90th birthday party, 90 friends and family members surprised her with a celebration at her home.
“It was delightful,” says Russell. “I knew they were up to something, but I never dreamed it would be this.”
“My granddaughters dressed up in my clothes, some as old as from 1958. I had been getting rid of them, and – unbeknownst to me – they had been keeping them. One of my granddaughters wore a sequined cashmere suit I bought in San Francisco – she was adorable in it.”
Russell, born in Mineola, TX on January 29, 1925 and graduated from Mineola High School and UT, married the late Dr. Richard (Mike) Burton Russell, DDS in 1947. The couple moved to LH in 1961 and had five children – Rebecca (now Alexander), Richard, Sally (now Grinsfelder), George and Charles. Her kids and 8 grandchildren call her Mammy.
“Lake Highlands was such a wonderful place to raise kids,” she says. “Everybody knew everybody. When we lived on Caribou Trail, the stables were just across Church Road. The kids could play outside then, all up and down the street, and we didn’t worry. It was a simpler time.”
Russell supported her children’s school activities, and she was an active member of Lake Highlands Women’s League. Their Caribou Trail house, which they built in 1966, was part of the Holiday in the Highlands home tour and her current home on Brentgate, inherited from her aunt and uncle, was also on tour. She is now an honored member of LHWL’s Silver Circle, reserved for those who’ve served more than 25 years.
“She still cooks food for an army,” says daughter Sally Grinsfelder, “pinto beans, chicken spaghetti, homemade soup, tuna salad, pimento cheese and homemade garlic crackers. She cooks because she cannot read or drive due to macular degeneration. When she cooks, which is almost every day, she shares with all her children and grandchildren.
“I love her attitude of giving. I think the phrase ‘The giving hand is never empty’ best describes my mother with her family. She wakes up every morning wondering how she can make life better for the people around her.”
“When I think about how to inspire people by example, I think of my Mammy,” say Ginger Grinsfelder Greenberg, Russell’s granddaughter now living and raising her family in LH. “She truly lives life to the fullest every single day. Giving up is never an option and ‘no’ is never an acceptable answer. My grandmother is the perfect combination of grace, intelligence, curiosity, humor and wit. And, I want to be just like her when I grow up.”
“The people in Lake Highlands, they’re wonderful,” says Russell. “It’s like a small town. The kids are all moving back. I love it.”
Happy birthday, Mrs. Russell.
Mary Frances Russell turns 90
