Alice Josephine Russell
March 19, 1914 - July 27, 2003
Bishop Robert Muench was her boy; her pride and joy, "Bobby," from St. Leo's. As he kept his promise to "do her funeral," it was as if in the long procession of boys and girls she taught and "principaled" one returned to give thanks. Yet, equally heartfelt in gratitude was Sister Joan Arceneaux, congregational health care consultant, and part-time teacher, who with her identical twin Jane in Paulina, sat at the feet of Sister Mary Alice in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, and like the bishop, credits Sister with fostering her vocation.
From childhood, Alice had an abiding love for the stage, which blossomed in her productions at the elementary schools. She pointed with nostalgia to her five-year-old self on vacation on the Gulf Coast with her cousins, dressed for the stage where she sang "In the Bowery." She still remembered all the verses, even when her memory was failing.
From St. Anthony's School she won not one, but two scholarships to Dominican High School, where upon graduation she and a group of friends, with some from College, joined up, and went down in history as the Famous Fourteen, the largest group to be professed in St. Mary's history. She taught in the grades, and at age thirty, became principal and superior in Paulina for six years. Meanwhile she got her M.A. in journalism at Louisiana State University, and then went to teach at her old high school. She did well there, teaching English, religion, and journalism, and in charge of the dramatic club, the carnival ball, and more. After two years during which her parents died within eleven months, she was happy to go back to the missions. Her spirit flourished in small community living.
Sisters Mary Edmund Gibson and Mary Anne McSweeney recall happy days at St. Bernadette's, in Houma. Sister Joel saved a shot of Alice "playing the washboard" on stage with Anne and Bernadette, all in straw hats, taking the parish talent show by storm.
Alice was famous for her creative gifts, turning out poems and song parodies to grace any occasion. Her sense of humor was golden, and a collection of candid shots reveal almost always an expression of deep happiness, as if to say, "I've got a secret!"
The key to her characteristic inner joy and sense of self-worth may well have been her parents, who were devoted to God, to each other, and to their three daughters. Her older sister Celeste entered the Daughters of Charity; their younger, dearly loved sister Mary married happily and provided nieces and nephews, to which Alice was always devoted.
She left part-time teaching in her home parish, and an appointment as Secretary General, to go back to the motherhouse, and later said to her sisters,
"In 1990, after four years at St. Anthony's, I asked to come to the motherhouse where I would not have to climb stairs and go out for Mass, and where I would be with many of my sisters. I have been here for four years, and feel that I, almost eighty, could be in no better place to prepare for my final mission, which I hope will be my Heavenly Home."
Her last days were marked by pain, and her reward is richly deserved. Thank you, fair Alice, dear Sister, for all you gave us, and for all you taught us!
