IN MEMORY HONOR ROLL

Russell was one of my favorite cousins. I didn't know him until one day around 1975 he called me at my house in San Francisco! "Hi there," he said with his Arkansas drawl. "I'm your cousin and my friend and I just arrived here. Can we come visit?" From then on, we were fast friends. I traveled quite a bit, and always wrote him letters about the foreign places I visited, and he always wrote back telling me about his day working on a riverboat on the Mississippi. One year he had a hillbilly party at his cabin in the woods and I flew from SF to attend (I still have the T-shirt). For the next two or three years, he invited me to family reunions and I stayed with him. When he told me about the cancer, I made a special trip to see him in March 1994 and it snowed. I remember being so excited I made a snowman in his yard!
RIP Russ. Still miss you.

RIP HERO

Russ was born and died in ARKANSAS

Russell Jack Benton, Jr., Russ, served with the Army in Vietnam from July 1969 to November 1970. In 1992, he became ill with Lung Cancer related to his exposure to Agent Orange in country. Russ fought his illness for 2 years, but lost his struggle on September 22, 1994.