DOROTHY ESTHER RUSSELL

1930

Dorothy Esther Russell, (known as Esther) was born February 27, 1930, in Multnomah County, Oregon, the daughter of Venita nee McKinney and Homer Athen Russell. She moved with her mother to Los Angeles, California in 1945, where she was enrolled in Culter Academy. She then moved to Santa Barbara in 1946 and graduated from high school there. While in high school, she was active in operetta plays. She was Maid Marian in Robin Hood, and in the play Peter Pan.

Esther received a scholarship to the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. Dr. Richard Lert, Conductor of the Pasadena Orchestra heard her sing and recommended her studying with Armand Tokatyan from the Metropolitan Opera.              

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This necessitated her moving to Pasadena, which she did. She secured a position as a telephone operator and a vocal soloist at a local church and studied voice.                                                       

 

Lloyd was going to an accounting school and was selling Monroe calculating machines. He had graduated from Redlands University.  He was six years older than Esther.

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Esther and Lloyd attended the same church but never met until she sang at a graduation program.  He heard her sing and wanted to know who she was.  He went home and wrote a letter to his mother who was living in San Diego at the time. In the letter, he wrote, “Mother, I heard a girl sing with the voice of an angel, and I know that I want to marry her.”

She was always off doing music stuff, so they hadn’t met. He wanted to come and introduce himself to her. Lloyd got her phone number from the program director, so he called her and asked for a date. He wanted to take her on a date to hear a returned missionary…so, radar went up. He wanted to take her someplace where no one knew her, just to see how she really was.  The first date was at her former church and EVERYONE knew her.  LOL!

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They had no money, either of them. Lloyd took her to San Diego to meet his mother.  (Bingo another radar).  He said, we’ll stop and cook breakfast on the beach. (She still didn’t know how to cook and still doesn’t…or so she says!) Then they wanted to go for a drive in the evening on the coast and stopped behind a nunnery.  A good place to see the ocean at night.  He proposed.  He said, “I think I love you, will you marry me?”

Esther’s immediate response was, “Well, I’ll have to ask my mother.” Her mother, Venita, was in Washington at the time caring for Wally’s wife, Ellen. This was in 1949.

They wrote their love story and sent it in to Bride & Groom on the Radio and in a week, they heard back that they were accepted! 

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They had nothing for the wedding, but the radio station helped provide everything. The wedding dress was a stage dress from Hollywood. She said it was so big and heavy, she could hardly move. They were married in the famous ‘Little Country Church of Hollywood’ eight months after they met on February 7, 1950.

The Bride & Groom Radio Program gave them luggage, kitchen table/chairs, washing machine, camera, rings and sent them on a week’s honeymoon at Berkley at Shattuck Hotel, San Francisco. 

 

They didn’t know where they were going to live. They stayed one night at her mother’s house. They got in the car and drove to the area that was his territory, to look for a place.  They were able to get into a little place in Redlands. Off they went.  To Lloyd’s life.  Off they went.  She felt like Abraham and Sarah… “Off we go!”

Lloyd and Esther soon made their home in San Bernardino, California, where Esther continued her studies and was employed as a soloist at the First Presbyterian Church. She tried out for the Redlands Bowl Auditions and won second place.

Lloyd was encouraged by a Methodist minister in managing credit unions while there. His first experience was with the San Bernardino Company Employee Credit Union, then he was recommended to the Rheem Air Credit Union in Downey, California and then on to the Southern California Gas Co. Credit Union. Lloyd also managed the Schools Christian Credit Union. He organized and managed five church credit unions: American Baptist C.U.; Nazarene C.U; Southern Baptist C.U.; Conservative Baptist C.U.; Lutheran C.U. Through a friend Lloyd was encouraged to invest in some property and the Lord has seen fit to bless their family.

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While in San Bernardino, Rosalind, their first child was born on August 31, 1951. After 2 ½ years, the family moved to Downey, California.

 

When in Norwalk, California, Esther was the director of a 150-voice children’s choir at Downey 1st Baptist Church, soloist at the Christian Church in Huntington Park, and a soloist for the Oratorio Society. She became Music Director at Paramount Baptist Church in 1954.  In addition to her vocal work, she played both the flute and piano. 

 

Roxane Arlene was born October 30, 1956 and Rachael Eileen was born April 11, 1960. During the latter year, the family moved to La Habra, California where Esther became the Director of Music at the Whitwood Baptist Church and was there five years.

 

“I became involved in teaching voice and piano while raising family and performing and directing; not to mention supporting and being homemaker for my husband Lloyd. (I must mention I had a wonderful mother and mother-in-law to help me.)

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“Lloyd was very active in sports in school-- mostly track and ran cross-country. He has continued this activity up to the end and encouraged all of the family to keep as fit as possible in a physical way as well as spiritually.”

  

 

Esther and her three daughters sang together and traveled to perform in several cities.

  

Lloyd eventually had Alzheimer’s and it fell on Esther to care for him. She moved from her home of many years where her children grew up and bought a larger home that was suitable to care for her husband. She cared for him for five years until he died in 2009. He is laid to rest at Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego. They were married over 59 years.