Hazel Louise Russell, 78, rural Osawatomie, died Friday, Aug. 8, 2003, in the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan.

She was born Feb. 4, 1925, in Edgerton, the daughter of Ivil LeRoy and Mildred Bernice Seckinger Mathia. While she was still a child, the family moved to Osawatomie where she attended school, graduating in 1943 from Osawatomie High School.

She and Leonard Lewis Russell were married July 24, 1946, in New Orleans, La. They made their home in Osawatomie and became parents of two children. They purchased the Whiteford farm southeast of Osawatomie in 1961 and moved there in the early 1970s to make their home.

Before she was married, she worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad. She worked along side her husband on the farm and had kept it going since his death in 1994.

She had also worked for her brother, Raymond Mathia, in his liquor store in Osawatomie.

Mrs. Russell was a longtime member of Osawatomie Chapter No. 26 of the Order of the Eastern Star where she had served as worthy matron.

Those preceding her in death also included her brother and two grandchildren.

Survivors include her children, Susan Elaine Thompson of Topeka and Phillip Russell of Osawatomie; four grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Services were today in Eddy-Birchard Funeral Home in Osawatomie. Pallbearers were Paul Obermeier, Jake Cody, Scott Mathia, Dan Mathia, Jessie Lindsay and Eric Dominick. Burial was in Whiteford Cemetery.

Memorials may be made to the Elks Scholarship Fund.