The Weekly Newspaper of El Segundo
Herald Publications - El Segundo, Hawthorne, Lawndale & Inglewood Community Newspapers Since 1911 - (310) 322-1830 - Vol. 110, No. 46 - November 18, 2021
Inside
This Issue
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.....................14
City Council..........................3
Classifieds............................4
Crossword/Sudoku.............4
Entertainment......................5
Legals............................11-13
Pets......................................15
Police Reports.....................3
Real Estate.......................7-9
Sports.................................3,6
Weekend
Forecast
Elizabeth Russell: From a Michigan
Cherry Farm Gal to El Segundo Artist
By Duane Plank
El Segundo’s Elizabeth Russell, who
hails from Traverse City, Michigan, tells
an amusing story about her “welcome to
El Segundo” moment. Russell, who retired
from a three-decade career in finance in the
aerospace industry in 2007, now sates her
creative instincts by designing glass artistry.
But about that “welcome to El Segundo”
moment. It seems that Russell was taking
advantage of our warm climate, with the
one-time Michigander relaxing near her El
Segundo domicile, clad in a tan-colored bathing
suit, enjoying the sunshine. It turns out
that a neighbor, with substantial time on their
hands, spied on Russell and decided that she
was sunbathing in the nude!
The very diligent neighbor, maybe gazing
through binoculars, called the El Segundo Police
Department. Shockingly, two police cars and
four police folks were soon on the scene to
apprehend the alleged nude sunbather. Russell
had fallen asleep while she was enjoying
the California sun when she was stirred by a
male voice. It turns out that once the police
folk arrived, they ascertained that Ms. Russell
was appropriately clothed and was not breaking
any local ordinances.
Russell said that the police officers, meticulously
doing their job, said that “obviously we
can see that you are not nude,” but that they
had to let her know of the complaint from the
helpful neighbor.
Fortuitously, a second police car quickly arrived
to check out the alleged scandalous nude
sunbather and keep the peace. Russell said that
incident, plus another one when another diligent
neighbor reported that Russell was playing her
music too loud (she said the volume, on a 1-10
scale, was turned down to two), let her know
that living in El Segundo was different from
living in the sprawl of Los Angeles.
Welcome to Mayberry, Elizabeth! I wonder
how Sheriff Andy Taylor and his buffoonish
sidekick Barney Fife would have managed such
an emergency police department call 60-or-so
years ago in their fictional town of Mayberry,
North Carolina? In the same way?
Interestingly, Russell was not fazed by her
overly officious neighbors. “I fell in love with
this town,” she said.
Russell was raised on a 110-acre dairy and
cherry farm in Michigan. Her father secured
the acreage by homesteading the land. She
called it “not an ordinary, run-of-the-mill farm,”
which, at one point, housed her five brothers
and five sisters. They had, she said, “Holstein
cattle and horses in the barn, pigs in a pen,
chickens in the coop,” as well as beagle dogs
who were invaluable for the hunting season,
and “barn cats” to kill intrepid field mice, as
well as “ducks who warned us of intruders,
and squirrels who lived in the woods.”
Then at one point, the two-story, fivebedroom,
one bathroom abode also included
a parlor room to encourage entertainment, a
piano room where the kids could assess their
musical chops, and the living and dining
rooms. “Another room,” Russell said, “had a
pool table, where Dad taught us the physics
of angles and ricocheting.”
Also, Russell said an official sign posted
on a nearby road, which proclaimed that her
family had owned the property for more than
one hundred years. By now, according to
Ms. Russell, the family ownership tenure has
expanded to about 140 years.
See Elizabeth Russell, page 14
El Segundo’s First Ethel
Eagle Reflects on City’s Past
By Kiersten Vannest
“Being a freshman was amazing, but
you went to the football games and never
watched the game.”
Karen Sellers, real estate agent and El
Segundo’s first Ethel Eagle, discusses
growing up in El Segundo and being
second in a line of four generations of El
Segundo residents. In this case, she talks
about the after-game dances held at the
high school during her time as a student
in the mid-sixties.
“You just goofed around, and immediately
after the football, there was a dance
in the cafeteria,” she says. After every
game, students were invited into the gym
for a dance with a DJ or a live band until
midnight. Though not as formal as prom
and therefore not requiring a date, these
dances often contained the same intrigue and
included students who were “going steady.”
Boys would lend girls their St. Christopher
surf medal necklaces, or in senior year,
their class ring, which, as Sellers says, was
always “way too big,” so they’d wrap angora
yarn around them to make them fit better.
“My favorite subjects,” she jokes, “were
boys, recess, lunch, dances, and football
games.” Otherwise, her focus in school was
in home economics, largely sewing and some
cooking. Sewing all her clothes throughout
school, Sellers won the Homemaker of the
Year award and got to take a field trip to
See Karen Sellers, page 14
Friday
Cloudy
62˚/54˚
Saturday
Cloudy
64˚/55˚
Sunday
Partly
Cloudy
73˚/56˚
ES Fire Chief Deena Lee Gives an
Inspirational Talk About Fire Service
El Segundo Fire Chief Deena Lee was a guest speaker at the Culver City Fire Department Girls Camp. She spoke with the participants about a career in the fire service with an emphasis on courage, hard
work and dedication. Her mantra is “if you see it, you can be it”. Stay tuned for information about another girls camp hosted by ESFD in the spring of 2022. Photo courtesy El Segundo Fire Department.