CAROLE’S PATERNAL FAMILY
RUSSELL – BEDORE
Grandparents
William Patrick Russell Sr. (1878 – 1954) & Eva C. Bedore (1883 – 1936)
William Patrick Russell Sr.
William was born in Massachusetts. His parents, Michael Russell and Mary Cashman were born in Ireland.
William worked as an iron moulder in Massachusetts. His brother Jack had a farm next to State Line Potato Chips in North Wilbraham. Their cousins owned land and were potato and onion farmers on Spruce Hill in Hadley.
1910 Census.
| Name: | William P Russell |
|---|---|
| Age in 1910: | 32 |
| Birth Year: | abt 1878 |
| Birthplace: | Massachusetts |
| Home in 1910: | Springfield Ward 1, Hampden, Massachusetts |
| Street: | Talcott Ave |
| House Number: | 31 |
| Race: | White |
| Gender: | Male |
| Relation to Head of House: | Head |
| Marital Status: | Married |
| Spouse’s Name: | Eva Russell |
| Father’s Birthplace: | Ireland |
| Mother’s Birthplace: | Ireland |
| Native Tongue: | English |
| Occupation: | Moulder |
| Industry: | Iron |
William P. Russell, Sr. at 75
with great-granddaughter
Carol (me) at 1
Springfield Union, 1952
Eva Bedore
Eva was born in Connecticut. Her parents were Jean Bédard (1849) & Elizabeth (Libbie) Leander, originally France, then Canada.
The Bedore name, sometimes also showed as John Bador or John Badar on census forms, was anglicized from Jean Bédard.
Family DNA results show settlers from the St. Lawrence River area also very likely. The Bédards migrated to northern Connecticut.
1900 Census
Eva was a “spinner” at age 16.
| Name: | Eva Bador [Eva Badar] |
|---|---|
| Age: | 16 |
| Birth Date: | Sep 1883 |
| Birthplace: | Connecticut |
| Home in 1900: | Enfield, Hartford, Connecticut |
| House Number: | 4 |
| Sheet Number: | 7 |
| Number of Dwelling in Order of Visitation: | 101 |
| Family Number: | 105 |
| Race: | White |
| Gender: | Female |
| Relation to Head of House: | Daughter |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Father’s name: | John Badar |
| Father’s Birthplace: | France, Canada |
| Mother’s name: | Libbie Bador |
| Mother’s Birthplace: | Canada, France |
| Occupation: | Spinner |
| Name | Age |
|---|---|
| John Badar | 50 |
| Libbie Bador | 44 |
| Eva Bador | 16 |
| Lizzie Bador | 14 |
| Rosana Bador | 12 |
| Delia Bador | 10 |
I do remember visiting “Aunt Delia” in Thompsonville, Connecticut with my mother and Auntie Marge and cousin Bonnie. There were several homes on the same street where “Bedore” siblings lived. So. Guessing they all grew up in Thompsonville, which is a township in Enfield.
William Russell & Eva Bedore Family
William & Eva and their children lived in the Upper Hill and McKnight areas of central Springfield, Massachusetts known for its multi-leveled homes where several generations lived in the same dwelling.
1930 Census
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CAROLE’S FATHER
William Patrick Russell, Jr. (Bill)
July 31, 1906 – March 27, 1980
Bill & Doris
William Patrick, Jr. (Bill) was a salesman for Castle Foods in Springfield, known for S.S. Pierce brand goods. He worked there from his early 20’s. During World War II he also worked nights at Fisk Tire in Chicopee Falls, holding two jobs as many did during the War. He later became a full time manager at the Fisk when it became U.S. Rubber.
His children with Doris Bateman:
Carole Jean Russell
William Patrick Russell III
Bill lost his wife Doris too early. His daughter Carole was a new mom and his son Billy a teen in high school. William & Billy moved to an apartment on Longhill Street and Billy went to American International College, then an sales & advertising career.
Bill & Lucy
Bill married Lucia Couture Mahoney (Lucy), whom he’d known from summers with Doris’ family at Hampton Ponds. Although we didn’t know our grandmother Doris, we called our grandfather William Poppy and his second wife Mémé (from Mémère colloquial Canadian French for Grandma).
Lucy married Bill in the mid-1950’s, several years after his first wife Doris’ untimely death. Both widowed, she childless, they knew each other from Lucy’s family-owned lakeside resort, Couture’s Gardens, at Hampton Ponds in West Holyoke, Massachusetts. William had summered there with his wife, Doris and her Bateman family where they all had cottages known as camps around Hampton Ponds. No indoor plumbing but plenty of booze.
Couture’s Grove was the gathering spot for all summer residents of The Ponds. It featured multi-colored light strings around a communal barbecue pit, with picnic tables next to the Cocktail Lounge with a neon Schlitz sign & Late Hours Strip Club. Shuffle board, too. Yup. All at the end of Couture Road, where the matriarch Grandma Couture ruled from her large triple decker house.
Grandma Couture had houses built for married daughters Aurore (Ora) Freyer and Lucy Mahoney. Matching bungalows on Couture Road. Each with arched stenciled stucco interior walls in the dining room, parlor and sunroom. Lucy also owned and helped run Mahoney’s Package Store, the New England version of a little liquor store, which she inherited from her first husband. It was right in her backyard next to the grape-arbor with sliding swing benches. Closed on Sundays when we visited, she’d unlock it to get candies for the kids and beer for the parents.
Lucy cooked Thanksgiving dinner for her adopted bevy of Colitti’s every year. She taught us to play Bonanza on an oilcloth card table cover and showed us how the strippers would balance cocktails on their ‘chests’. Bill & Lucy had separate bedrooms, which as kids we impulsively remarked upon. Lucy winked at us and said, ‘my friend visits me now and then’. Lucy Couture was a hoot.
Poppy was a very quiet guy. But, when he spoke we listened. Loved a high ball or a Manhattan straight up with a cherry. And snix snax. Cheese & crackers & such. Especially pickled pigs feet. Sat in his overstuffed chair nursing an occasional García y Vega English Corona from a tableside yellow flip-lidded box. He’d put the paper ring on one of his granddaughter’s fingers. College football would be playing on the Zenith in the stenciled stuccoed living room Thanksgivings while Lucy (Mémé) cooked. Uncle Eddie & Lucy’s sister Auntie Ora joined the Colitti clan for festive turkeys every year. Sometimes Uncle Billy, too. Ora talked so much nobody else got a word in.
Even when Poppy & Mémé visited our house on Sundays after Mass at the round church, Blessed Sacrament in Holyoke, he didn’t have much to say. They’d drive up in their giant Chrysler of the year, usually a champagne color. Arriving with a serene smile, he always wore a suit and tie with a clip and a soft fedora and an ever-present ruby ring. To go with Mémé’s dress, pearls, mink stole with a fox biting clasp, veiled cloche or pillbox and gloves. A natty couple.
William Jr.’s Siblings
Evelyn (1902 – 1936) – Fitzpatrick
Worked in a beauty salon as a single woman according to one census. Grave shows her last name to be Fitzpatrick, so must have married later. She and her mother Eva both died in 1936.
Florence C. (1907 – 1949) – Leo J. Gorman
Leo W. Gorman (Skip)
Florence married Leo J. Gorman and later in life for those days they had a son Leo W. (Skip). They all lived together in a 3-story home in Springfield with her parents and siblings. Florence died when Skip was 6. Leo married again to Edna Masi and she raised Skip who had developmental issues. Edna was a stalwart mother. Leo, Florence & Edna (d. 2014) are buried together with “their son” Leo W. (Skip). Very cool.
Also in the same gravesite at St. Michael’s Cemetery is William P. Russell, Sr., his wife Eva Bedore and another daughter Evelyn Russell Fitzpatrick.
Harold John (1909) – Beulah E. Lynde (1912)
Joan Claire – Thomas Barker
James
John
Older siblings were almost a generation older than Marjorie. Evelyn 21 and unmarried at the time Marge was born.
Marjorie Rita (August 31, 1923 – April 21, 2006) – Francis V. Simpson
Theresa Lee (Terri) – Ted Gloss
Francis Vincent, Jr. (Sandy) – Ann
Bonnie Marie – Ken Conklin
1940 Census.
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Carole’s Auntie Marge
Marjorie was born a generation after her siblings. The Russell family lived on Annawon Street in Springfield, and Marjorie was 16. She lived there with her father William, 63, as well as her brother Harold, sister Florence & husband Leo Gorman, all in their early 30’s. Marjorie’s mother Eva Bedore died in 1936, so when Marjorie was just 12 or 13. Florence’s son Leo W. (Skip) was not born until 3 years later.
A person listed as cousin of Leo J. Gorman, Helen Seaver, 28 also lived with them. She was a hotel worker, so she may have been related to Erna Seaver, original owner of the old Highland Hotel with Rupprecht Scherff and later they co-owned The Student Prince & Fort Restaurant.
Marjorie Russell Simpson was to become the matriarch of the family as she took in extended family on Amherst Street in her early married years. She contracted polio in the 1950’s at Fenway Park during the epidemic. After being in an iron lung, paralysis remained in her legs. Navigating life in a wheelchair and on crutches thereafter, she raised three young children to adulthood.
She and Uncle Fran Simpson eventually moved to the Sixteen Acres section of Springfield with their 3 kids and were our neighbors as well as family, one house away, for many years. Only the De Santi’s between us. Her daughter Bonnie and I were in the same 6th Grade class with Mr. O’Neil. Florida Bushey, our neighbor, and Marjorie’s oldest daughter Terri taught me the latest dances while watching American Bandstand every afternoon at 4. Shimmy. Watusi. Mashed Potatoes. Pony. and More.
Marjorie never forgot a birthday. She cooked for large family events, especially Christmas Eve and was the Queen of Baby Showers. Although great-aunt to many, she was beloved Auntie Marge to all.
Carole’s Brother Billy
William Patrick Russell III. Carole’s younger and only sibling. Uncle Billy and Daddy were like besties when I was a very little girl. We were living on South Branch Parkway across from Mill Pond with an open breezeway. Mom’s and Billy’s mother had just died when he was in high school like Dad’s and he was adrift until going to American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts. My Dad was working at his father’s store and a very very young father. Billy and he were like a couple years apart. They did lawn work together and one summer painted the house sharing a huge pitcher of beer which read, “I Bet You Can’t”
While in college, Billy lived with his Dad but spent most nights sleeping on the couch on our breezeway and working at Serv-U Hardware in Sixteen Acres. He’d take the dirt path from Swan Hill Drive out to Parker Street and when he got home he’d take me out with my cousin Bonnie on “nature walks” in the woods. He’d make up crazy stories about rocks and trees that had little scientific basis. Yet they were very fun.
His favorite story was “Stickatickatembonosoremboabaymushkaymushiskanabracadabraallakazaam” who fell into the well. It was silly. And he added his own enhancements as time went on.
After graduating from college, he worked for U.S. Envelope in Springfield as a salesman and won marketing awards. He then went to work for Dr. Land in the very early days at Polaroid in Boston. He became close to Dr. Land and was a top marketing executive for the company.
Sometime in the early ’60’s. Uncle Billy bought a Jaguar XKE with Frank Cheramonte from Glastonbury, Connecticut. They put the top down and headed out to San Francisco. Billy loved the City By the Bay so much he stayed and built an advertising business W.P. Russell Company, on Union Street. His adjunct office was at Perry’s bar next door where dominoes and blivits (his word for beers) were de rigueur.
When we first saw that gorgeous green XKE convertible as Billy drove up our driveway in Wilbraham before leaving on his cross-country foray, we screeched in awe. He nonchalantly said, “We call it the Rolls Canardly. It is pretty but when it rolls down one hill it can hardly get up the next.”
I visited him in San Francisco when I was at Wheaton College and stayed in his Sacramento Street apartment. I had a boyfriend from Brown, Bob G., who was out there at the same time. Billy had a party and then at some point in the night left us to our own devices. A couple straggling partiers, Bob and I decided it would be great to start the bulldozer sitting on the construction site across the street. They were building a hospital, which is coincidentally where many decades later I gave birth to Ben. But I digress. So we started the bulldozer and it was moving when we panicked and jumped off. From Billy’s window, we watched cops looking very perplexed to find a running bulldozer on a mound.
Billy had friends in ‘showbiz’ and the producers of Ironside took us out to Alcatraz while the Island was occupied by Native Americans. An unforgettable experience:
Uncle Billy and I then went to Lake Tahoe to go skiing at Heavenly Valley. I wasn’t much of a skiier, but liked the warm weather. That night we went to the casino and even though I was underage, I put Uncle Billy’s chips on a guy playing craps. He was winning. A lot. So I won about $400, enough for our Tahoe stay. Billy laughed when I gave the guy a $5 chip as a thank you.
After I got married to Gary, we met Mom & Dad in San Francisco and took a drive to Billy’s “lodge” in the Santa Cruz mountains. He was living there with Gordon and working for Iron Mountain documents where there was a storage bunker nearby and Billy was in charge of watching it? Vague memories, but he had a hutch from Dad’s old clothing store and it was a remote but cool place.
Didn’t see Billy much in later years. But. Mom loved her brother and stayed connected to him until the end. So did Sister Deb.
Carole & Joe 