DATE: Friday, October 3, 1997               TAG: 9710030942

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   41 lines

MARY E. RUSSELL

Mary Edmonds Russell, 87, went home to be with her Lord on Thursday, Oct. 2, 1997.

She lived a wonderfully fulfilled life, continually embracing new challenges as they were presented to her. She was predeceased by her parents, Frank and Irene Wentz; her beloved first husband, William J. Edmonds; and second husband, Glenn O. Dunshee. Mary's third and surviving husband, Ellroy L. Russell, has been her devoted partner, friend and caregiver for her last 10 years on this earth. She was a member of First Lutheran Church of Norfolk and the Bible Study Group.

She served as president of the Chesapeake Senior Citizens' Club Council and on the Chesapeake Mayor's Committee on Aging, and was vice president of the local A.A.R.P.

Other survivors Mary leaves include her daughter, Nancy Schucker and her husband, Larry, and their daughter, Stacey; her son, Jerry Edmonds and his wife, Lana O'Meara, and his daughters, Pamela Valois and Jill Belmer; one stepdaughter, Carolyn Dunshee Copes; and three stepsons, Bill and Roger Dunshee and Ellroy F. Russell.

As the firstborn, she is survived by all five sisters and one brother, and as it should be, is the first to join Frank and Irene in eternal life. Sisters Helen Sawyer, Doris Ballance and Jackie Siviter of Chesapeake, Beulah Cornett of Prince William County, Virginia Ives of Brighton Gardens, Norfolk, and her brother, Frank Wentz II and his wife, Virginia, of Suffolk, will cherish their own memories of ``Sister.'' She is also survived by her numerous stepgrandchildren, great-grandchildren, and step-great-grandchildren, and nieces and nephews.

A funeral will be conducted at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in the Chapel of Oman Funeral Home, Great Bridge, by the Rev. James E. Cobb. Burial will follow in Chesapeake Memorial Gardens.

Viewing will begin on Saturday with the family receiving friends in the funeral home from 3 to 4:30 p.m. and immediately following the services on Sunday in the home of the daughter and son-in-law, Nancy and Larry Schucker, 3312 Country Mill Run, Chesapeake. KEYWORDS: DEATH OBITUARY

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu