Happy Birthday William Patrick Russell III. Uncle Billy.

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 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.”

Yup. That was Uncle Billy.