Death of Mrs. J. B. Russell

Mrs. Sarena Berry Russell, wife of J. B. Russell, living two miles north of Prentiss, peacefully passed from earth to Heaven early Tuesday morning, just as countless petals opened their velvet folds to the warmth of a new day. This good woman was born in the southern part of Simpson county Feb. 20, 1844, and was thus something over 84 years of age. She was just a girl when the boys in gray went marching to the call of Southern cannon in 1861, but she knew something of the terrors of that terrible saturnalia of fratricidal strife. Spending her childhood in Simpson county with the compaionship of brothers, sisters, and a large family connection, she was especially prepared to become a homemaker and in 1870 she was married to J. B. Russell, who survives her. To this union there were born five children, only two of whom survive, Mrs. Percy Dumas and Prof. Chas. C. Russell, both of Prentiss. There were in her immediate family, reared among the flowers of what is now north Jefferson Davis and south Simpson counties, thirteen of the Berry children. Today the earth covers another one of that family of brothers and sisters as a new mound is made at Mt. Zion church, where interment was made at 11 o'clock Wednesday, Rev. A. J. Davis, pastor of the Prentiss charge, conducting the funeral rites.

Mrs. Russell was a devoted mother and wife. She reared her children with a care that will always find a response in their love for mother. She was a devout Christian, having given her heart to Christ when but a young woman, and for all these years has honored the Man of Sorrows with her life and faith. She was a member of the Methodist church, but all creeds, where fellowship with God reigned, appealed to her tolerance. She leaves the following brothers and sisters, besides her husband and children; P. W. Berry and Jno. L. Berry, Prentiss; Abner Berry, Shivers; Mrs. Eliza Buckley, Hathorn; Mrs. Rosa O'Roark, Columbia. Her life exemplified Browning's words;
"Our times are in His hand, Who saith, 'A whole I planned, Youth shows but half; trust God; see all; Nor be afraid."

Published in the Prentiss Headlight, Prentiss, Mississippi