Page 14 November 18, 2021 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Elizabeth Russell from front page
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Russell said that, with ten siblings bouncing
around the property, there was a “survival of
the fittest, with daily hand-to-hand combats and
screaming.” Russell said that, as the youngest
daughter, and the shortest one in the family, she
had to endure times when her older siblings
would lock her in a closet; at that point, she
would start screaming to get someone’s attention
who would hopefully unlock the door.
“I had the loudest scream,” she said, mentioning
her older brother’s fun-loving propensity
for throwing her “into a dark closet.”
“There was always some possessed sibling
jumping out from behind a door to scare the
living daylights out of me,” she said, “to beat
the hell out of me for no reason. You would
think that our family invented the term dysfunctional.”
Growing up in a family with eleven children,
Russell said she did not necessarily want to
have children. “I had enough of kids,” she said.
Although she cherished her family time,
Russell said she was grateful to leave the farm
after her high school years and matriculate to
Michigan State University and become a Spartan.
She said her extended family numbers more
than five hundred at this point, wryly noting
that, before the movie “Four Weddings and a
Funeral” hit the cinematic screens in 1994,
her vast family had yearly “get-togethers” that
dwarfed the ceremonies portrayed in the film.
“Michigan State was so much fun for me.
I wanted to get off that farm so badly. I
just did not like that lifestyle,” Russell said,
mentioning how being surrounded by 40,000
or so college students in her age range was
a mind-expanding experience. She noted that
it was during her college years when she was
introduced to a couple of books that, shall
we say, broadened her horizons. The books:
Woody Allen’s “Everything you Wanted to
Know About Sex, but Were Afraid to Ask,”
and “The Happy Hooker.” “Shocking (books),”
she said. Ah, the things that you learn during
those college years.
Russell said that she has always loved the
creative side of the art world, but her career
in aerospace finance did not give her much of
an artistic outlet.
That all changed after her retirement in 2007.
Russell said that she was hooked on unleashing
her creative muse once she took a stained-glass
class at the local Joslyn Center. She produced
stained glass creations for “about eight years”
when she “stumbled upon fused glass paintings.”
She was intrigued with fused glass paintings
and hooked up with a guru and teacher from
Oregon who traveled to SoCal several times
a year to instruct students. Russell took what
she called “intense classes” from the Oregon
instructor and has progressed from there, with
some of her favorite designs involving trees.
Her El Segundo home, both inside and out,
has become a virtual glass art cathedral. And
as Russell continued to evolve her artistry,
she added fused-glass painting to her creative
repertoire.
Russell said that, at one point, she investigated
avenues to monetize her creations. Still,
nothing materialized, and then the scourge of
COVID hit, so Russell’s painstaking creations
currently adorn her El Segundo home.
Lisa Krone-Schmidt has known Russell for
more than 35 years; they worked together in the
aerospace industry. Krone-Schmidt said that
Russell is “incredibly creative and prolific. She
is extremely focused, working all day long. Her
art is just fantastic. Her house is like a museum!
“She has a vision,” Krone-Schmidt said
regarding Russell’s artistic creations. “She
is fearless when trying new things, the most
creative person that I have ever seen.”
Paula Kennedy has known Russell since
the mid-1970s. Kennedy said that her friend
“is unbelievably optimistic; she always sees
the positive side of things. She refuses to be
‘brought down by negativity.”
Russell married a “Scotsman” when she
was forty-six. John is “the love of my life, in
every way possible,” she said of her husband.
“The only problem,” she said, laughing, is that
“John loves his country” and must go back
there every year, usually packing his golf clubs.
Russell said that her husband was a professional
soccer player, and after his retirement
from the combat on the pitch, turned to golf.
“Addicted,” Russell said.
When Elizabeth was interviewed, husband
John was across the pond, satiating his golf
jones instincts. “I am fine with that,” Elizabeth
said, of John’s traversing the Euro Continent
to be the next senior tour version of Arnold
Palmer, “but I miss him so much.”
So how did the gal from the sometimeschilly
confines of Traverse, Michigan, end up
in El Segundo? It turns out that Russell had
an older sister, Barbara, who lived in the Los
Angeles area. Elizabeth wanted to be where
“it was summer all year round” because she
“could not stand the snow.”
She was thinking of moving to Florida but
soured on that idea when she was counseled
that the Sunshine State was where “all of the
retired people go.” With a sister living in So-
Cal and familiar with the tunes of Hawthorne’s
Beach Boys, she yearned to live in a locale
that was “summer all year round.”
Not a fan of living in the confines of Los
Angeles, Russell said that she had done a little
research and was captivated by the thought of
settling in Santa Barbara. But her sister, with
some prodding from their mother, dissuaded
Elizabeth from moving to Santa Barbara,
fibbing about the Santa Barbara population,
saying that (sound familiar?) was “where all
of the retired people go.” Which was patently
“untrue,” Russell said.
It turns out Russell’s mother and sister felt
they could keep a closer eye on the youngest
of five sisters if she lived in SoCal.
Russell heeded her mother’s and older
sister’s advice. Because her sis was living in
Manhattan Beach, what her sister termed “the
hustle capital of the world, with all kinds of
beach boys,” Russell soon landed a job in the
local Aerospace industry.
Russell then moved to El Segundo in 1977.
“My kind of town,” Russell said.
As our phone conversation wound down,
Russell added that she really likes the connection
that she has made with locals, mentioning
that she used to host large tea parties, in which
she would do most, if not all, of the hostessing
work. She then pivoted to having the parties
catered by an outside firm, so that she could
spend more time with her guests.
She said she is now more in-tune with hosting
much smaller groups and was excited to
mention that she will be hosting gatherings,
through the 4-H organization, with young
women, in which she can impart some of the
wisdom that she has gained over the years.
From Traverse City, Michigan, the selfproclaimed
“Cherry Capital of the World,” to
the west-coast Mayberry, Elizabeth Russell is
still artfully kicking “glass.” •
Papadoodle Jaws, Elizabeth Russell, and her artistic creations. Photo provided by Elizabeth Russell.
Karen Sellers from front page
the Future Homemakers of America convention.
A Mrs. Nanette Fisher, then the home
economics teacher, personally drove Sellers
and another girl to the convention in her little
black Volkswagen.
Though the subject largely doesn’t exist in
schools anymore, according to her, Sellers
reports that she has been in contact with El
Segundo schools offering to teach it for free.
Having helped her throughout her life, she
hopes to share the essential skill of sewing
with younger generations.
After high school, Sellers went on to get her
associate’s degree and married her high school
sweetheart. Though that didn’t work out, she
went on to raise her daughter alongside her
parents and five siblings here in El Segundo.
“I was very fortunate to buy my first house
in 1973 for $30,000,” she says. Since then,
she’s lived in about ten houses around town
and built her career in real estate.
El Segundo High School has two mascots:
Elmer Eagle and Ethel Eagle. Though Elmer
had been the sole school mascot until then,
Sellers unwittingly created Ethel in 1965.
“It was cheerleaders and song leaders, and
traditionally, they pick a friend of theirs to be
the mascot,” she explains. In her particular
year, two girls were promised the role of Elmer
Eagle for the upcoming football season (though
Elmer, the character is male, the performer was
usually female). The school agreed to have two
Eagles that year and created a new companion
to Elmer named Ethel to remedy this.
“So, I made my costume, and it was a
yellow and white gingham dress,” she says,
“This guy, his name was Gary Bullock, I think,
made our heads out of paper mâché, and they
were hysterical.” Sellers knitted coverings for
her flip flops and donned the eagle head with
pride and laughter. Towing a wagon and an old
Arrowhead water bottle for the spirit bottle,
Sellers pepped up the crowd.
This year, for the homecoming parade,
Sellers happened upon the Elmer and Ethel
of today near their float, who turned out to
be two boys this year. Since her time, Sellers
describes the costumes as having gone from
hokey to professional.
Having lived in El Segundo since 1958,
Sellers describes the biggest change to the community
as money. Growing up, she describes
living in a largely blue-collar town, living in a
three-bedroom apartment with her parents and
their six children. Since then, Sellers has been
interested to see major companies like the LA
Times and major spacecraft companies call the
city home. She’s observed these changes with
the understanding that the city is evolving with
the changing world.
“It’s not the same, because the world is not
the same.”
Sellers describes walking home alone after
dances and not thinking twice. She tells stories
of her siblings getting caught and reported to
their parents, because everyone in the city
knew each other. She jokingly says that the
best part of El Segundo is that everyone knows
everyone, and the worst part of El Segundo is
that everyone knows everyone.
Though the city has changed with the evershifting
world, Sellers has noticed one common
denominator between those who’ve stayed and
those who’ve left. Everyone always comes back
to El Segundo, in one sense or another. As a
real estate agent, Sellers says she commonly
hears from those who’ve moved away that
they are so happy because they found a place
just like El Segundo. Once an El Segundoan,
forever an El Segundoan. •