Biography
Russell was born on December 31, 1923, in Portland, Oregon, the daughter of Paul Ostroot of North Dakota and Ruth Chapman Ostroot of Colfax, Washington. Her father worked for General Mills, and her mother was a Phi Beta Kappa "in a time when few women competed for college grades."
She was educated in Portland and received her bachelor of arts from the University of Washington, where she was a Phi Beta Kappa and president of the student body. During World War II she carried mail and worked in a furniture factory. She earned a secondary teaching credential from UCLA.
She was married at the age of 22 on December 29, 1946, to William Treloar Russell, 26; he remained in the Army as a lieutenant colonel for eight years and later became an aerospace engineer with TRW. They had three children, Steven, David and Mercedes. She lived at 6401 Riggs Place, Westchester, Los Angeles. By January 1985, the couple had separated, but they kept in touch with each other, taking outdoor trips and "having dinner with him virtually every night during the Christmas holidays."
A Los Angeles Times reporter noted that during the early part of her career as a councilwoman, she "showed off more in public, when she wore muumuus to work along with earrings shaped like watermelons, when she quoted Chinese philosophers, made no secret of the personal flotation tank she owned, and once missed a council meeting to attend a wilderness retreat sponsored by est," which she later said gave her a sense of "empowerment." But after her election to the City Council presidency, she presented "a tailored, stylish appearance and a politely distant manner that has been described as both presidential and imperious." It was said that she had her goal set on the mayoralty.
Russell led a healthy, outdoor life, running several miles a day in 1985 and engaging in strenuous mountain hikes. At age 67 in 1991 she ran twenty-five miles a week and was in the Salton Sea area with her husband, from who she still lived apart, for a 16-mile, 6,500-foot climb.
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