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Submitted: 9/21/20 • Approved: 9/21/20 • Last Updated: 9/24/20 • R1340070-G1340070-S3
Juanita Jean Colvin Crabb Darnell Russell
May 1, 1927 - Mar 4, 2009
Father: William Fulton Colvin
Mother: Stella Beatrice Colvin
Spouse: Clifton Noah Crabb
Juanita Jean Russell, 81, formerly of Helena-West Helena, died March 4, 2009, at St. Vincent's Medical Center in Sherwood, Arkansas. Juanita was born May 1, 1927, in Bradley County, the youngest of the four children of Fulton and Stella Colvin. Her siblings Wentz, Lottie, and Hedy preceded her in death.
First married at 17, Juanita arrived in post-war Helena in 1948 aboard a Delta Eagle train with a three-year-old son in tow. She spent her first weeks of Twin City residence at Cherry Street's Cleburne Hotel. Her husband, Clifton Crabb, thereafter spent a number of years as a barber in various Cherry Street barbershops. Juanita herself, to help support their four children, spent twenty years employed as a seamstress at the West Helena Bobbie Brooks Garment Factory. During this period she also worked a second job as a ticket seller for Cherry Street's Malco and Paramount Movie Theaters.
In the last years of her life, Juanita served as a docent at the Delta Cultural Center where she enjoyed meeting and greeting the frequent out-of-town visitors to the now reconfigured train depot to which she had arrived in town more than a half century before. She also found enjoyment in her animals, her flowers, watching John Wayne movies, and listening to Elvis, her all-time favorite entertainer.
Having suffered the devastating loss of her home to an all-consuming fire in late July, Juanita had tried valiantly to start life over in an apartment, but the stress of that effort proved ultimately to be too daunting and debilitating. To the end, however, she remained true to the inscription that she had picked for her headstone: "Her children, her joy".
Thrice married (to husbands Clifton Crabb, T.L. Darnell, G.W. Russell), Juanita was mother to Gerry, Rita, Bill and Alan Crabb. She was also known as "Momma" to her stepchildren Grady Russell, Terry Russell, and Vivian Russell Harrington. Other survivors include six grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. She was also preceded in death by a grandson, Scott Andrew Crabb.
Services for Juanita Russell will be held at 2 p.m., Monday, March 9, 2009 at Roller-Citizens. Visitation will be Sunday evening from 6-8 p.m. at Roller-Citizens. Burial will be at Sunset Memorial Park in West Helena.
Services directed by Roller-Citizens Funeral Home, West Helena, (870) 572-2571.
Photo courtesy of;
Annette Shaw
Contributed on 9/21/20 by hawkinsdonna48
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Record #: 1340070