Grandpa/Great-grandpa Donnell

Samuel Russell Donnell, July 15, 1871-- October 1954

         Grandson Randolph Russell Donnell called him Bebop, for as a year old toddler, he wasn't able to say  those magic words, grandpa.  Unfortunately, his brothers, Sammy and Scott, and sister, Nancy Lisa, would never know their grandfather.  In his youth and middle age, he was a very handsome man, something, I am sure, that attracted his two future wives, Mildred Johnston and Irma Pust.  Randy would entertain his grandfather for hours while in his playpen that had been pushed next to Bebop's chair.  Samuel loved to watch him play and called him the "little geezer".    

        Samuel Russell Donnell was born July 15, 1871 at Spring Hill, Indiana.  He had three brothers and two sisters.  Samuel attended school in Hinksville, Ohio.  He became an assistant manager for the Hines Lumber Company in Forest Park, Illinois and had an interest in a taxi cab company.  His first wife was Mildred Johnston whom he married on November 16, 1918.  Tragedy struck the young newlyweds, for one year later in the year 1919, Mildred became a victim of the flu epidemic that swept the nation at that time in history.  When Samuel passed away in 1954, his coffin was transported by train to Greensburg, Indiana so that he could be buried along side her in the Greensburg Cemetery.  

Irma Amelia Pust caught his eye one day when she and her girlfriend were dining in a restaurant.  Irma often related that "he thought she was a movie star."    She was thirty years old and he was fifty-one when they married in Crown Point, Indiana in 1922.  Five years later, in 1927, they had one son, Samuel Randolph Donnell born when Irma was thirty-five and Samuel fifty-six.

          Sometime during their early marriage, Samuel and Irma  moved to Oak Park, Illinois and opened a cigar and card shop in Oak Park.  Irma managed the card section while Samuel managed the cigar and tobacco department.  They lost their business in the crash of 1929.  Irma related that foolishly, they kept pumping money into the shop in an effort to keep it going, but to no avail ... they lost everything.  In 1933, dead broke, Samuel, Irma and six year old Sammy moved to La Crosse, Wisconsin where they resided in the other half of a house owned by Irma's aunt (Louise Hoffman), affectionately referred to as Aunt Lou.  Samuel and Irma would live in that house on 922 State Street until their deaths; Irma inheriting the house when Aunt Lou passed away years later.  

After moving to La Crosse, Samuel found a job with the Linker Hotel on Main Street as an elevator operator.  In those days, all elevators required a person to push the buttons or maneuver the control lever ... no automatic and self service ones like today.   Unfortunately during his tenure as the Linker Hotel elevator operator, there was an accident involving the elevator, and Samuel suffered some debilitating injuries. (what kind of injuries is not know by this writer)   When I came to know him, he was already an old man suffering from Parkinson disease.  This would have been about 1949-50.  He spent most of his time sitting in a chair facing a huge picture type window and watching the traffic and activity on State Street.  He walked with a shuffle and his hands shook which is so characteristic of Parkinson disease.  At the age of 83, he passed away from complications of uremic poisoning known today as kidney failure.      

Samuel Russell was 79 when this photo was taken.  Irma is in her mid 50's and Samuel Randolph in his early 20's.  This is the Samuel I first knew when I dated his son in 1949.

Samuel's boyhood home in Kingston, Indiana.  Bebop told of how he and his brothers would take the family buggy and wash it in the nearby creek.  The boys room was the small shed to the right in the photo.  The house was built of sturdy red brick and was still in use in 1954 when Irma, Samuel Randolph, and I visited it.  The house has been in the family for years and years.

Samuel's parents were Luther Lewis Donnell and Cornelia Fitz Randolph Donnell.  They are buried in the Kingston Cemetery.  Sons Albert and Edward are also buried in the family plot.

Our family has five Samuel R Donnells starting with Samuel Russell, Samuel Randolph, Samuel Ray, Samuel Ryan and Samuel Rylan.  It is a proud name with a proud heritage.