Alma L. Russell

Alma L. Rus­sell, 96, for­merly of Portsmouth and Wheel­ers­burg passed away Mon­day (June 18, 2012) at the Sarah Moore Health Care Cen­ter in Delaware.

She was born Nov. 29, 1915, at New Boston, Ohio, the daugh­ter of the late Alphon­sus and Mary Agnes (Born) Bustet­ter. She was reared in Greenup, Ky., before mov­ing to Portsmouth. Alma was a 1934 grad­u­ate of St. Mary High School, a Cub Scout den mother, Girl Scout leader, past pres­i­dent of the St. Mary PTA and a offi­cer in the orig­i­nal Notre Dame High School PTA. She was a devoted wife, mother, grand­mother and great-grandmother and was known to her grand­chil­dren as Mimi. She was hap­pi­est when all her fam­ily came to visit her.

Sur­viv­ing are her daugh­ters, Car­olyn Gem­per­line of The Vil­lages, Fla., Suzanne “Honey” Bates of West­er­ville, Arlene Osborne of Col­orado Springs, Colo., Patri­cia “Cece” Barry of Dublin and Melissa (Tim) Dearfield of Love­land; sons, James (Bar­bara) Rus­sell of Pow­ell and George (Kathy) Rus­sell of Wheel­ers­burg; 17 grand­chil­dren, 34 great-grandchildren; one brother, John Bustet­ter of Miami, Fla.; and one sis­ter, Helen Yobst of Virginia.

She was pre­ceded in death by her hus­band of 65 years, George Rus­sell in 2001. They were mar­ried on June 16, 1936. She was also pre­ceded in death by a sis­ter, Angela Nelson.

A Mass of Chris­t­ian Bur­ial will be at 1 p.m. Fri­day, June 22, at St. Mary Catholic Church in Portsmouth with the Rev. Adam Stre­it­en­berger offi­ci­at­ing. Inter­ment will be in Green­lawn Ceme­tery. Friends may call from 6 to 9 p.m. Thurs­day at Melcher Funeral Home. Recita­tion of the rosary will be at 8 p.m. Thurs­day at Melcher Funeral Home.

Posted by Staff Reports Obits on Jun 20 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.