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RidgeCrest Couple Celebrates Their 60th Wedding Anniversary

January 29, 2007

Maxine and Will Russell, residents of RidgeCrest Court on the campus of RiverWoods Senior Living Community, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on January 20 with a party planned by their children.  Approximately 75 of their family members and friends were in attendance and gathered in the Creative Arts Room.  The actual date of their anniversary was January 22.

“We met in the 10th or 11th grade of high school,” Maxine reminisces.  “Will lived in the country and couldn’t come to the school until 9th grade.”  They attended Montgomery-Clinton High School.

Sixty years of marriage certainly is an accomplishment these days when it is said that over half of today’s marriages will end in divorce.  Will and Maxine, like any other couple, have had their share of good and bad times.  In 1985, Mr. and Mrs. Russell were living on their family’s farm above Allenwood when a tornado came though.  They lost the roof and windows of their house, the barn, and their pool.  Many trees on their property were destroyed as well. 

Maxine’s advice for long, happy marriages is to always communicate well with each other and to stick it out.  I’m sure that advice helped them through their struggle in 1985.

Before retiring, Maxine was a secretary at I.C. Decker in Montgomery and Will worked mainly as a farmer.  He also did several odd jobs on the side to help put their three children through college, such as installing swimming pools, serving as Justice of the Peace, and selling mutual funds.  When he retired, though, Will was employed as the postmaster of Allenwood.  Maxine and Will have three children, two living in New York and the other living in New Jersey.  Their oldest child that lived in New Jersey passed away in 2004.  Mr. and Mrs. Russell lived in Lewisburg before moving to RidgeCrest in June 2003.