Biography:

Public relations, rate supervisor, editor, civic leader. Born– May 3, 1911, Hackneyville. Parents– Charles Henry and Nellie Dunn (Ledbetter) Russell. Married– Jesse Clyde Cruse, December 22, 1931. Children– Two. Education– Birmingham Southern College, University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin, and University of Minnesota; University of Alabama, A.B. in Journalism (1976); Samford, M.A. in English (1981) and in History (1984). Worked for Southern Bell, 1928-1944, 1954-1976; public relations supervisor from 1965-1968; rate supervisor, 1968-1976.  Edited BAMA Bulletin for South Central Bell Telephone Company; edited the Muse Messenger for the Alabama State Poetry Society, 1977; edited the Alabama Baptist Historian, 1986-89.  Member, vice-president and  president of the Birmingham Association of Industrial Editors. Served on the Board of Directors of the Alabama Festival of the Arts, 1970-73.  Nominated Woman of the Year in Birmingham three times. Earned three Freedom Foundation awards. Outstanding Alumna of University of Alabama New College, 1991. Died February 10, 2002.

Source:

Obituary, Birmingham News, February 12, 2002; Foremost Women in Communications, 1970; Who’s Who in the South and Southwest, 1982.

Publication(s):

A Centennial Reminiscence. S.l.; s.n., 1982.

The First Ten Years; an Informal History of Metropolitan Business and Professional Women’s Club of Birmlngham. Birmingham, Ala.; Cruse, 1973.

To Bear the Message; a Dramatic Presentation for the Christmas Season. Franklin, Ohio; Eldridge Pub. Co., 1953.