Her 55 year old father, Henry, was working as a laborer at a railroad tie plant, which was likely the American Creosote Company on the south side of Marion on Rt. 37 where Short Brothers is now located. Her 45 year old mother was supplementing income by working as a private home housekeeper. Children in the home were Zettie Gardner, an 18 year old coal miner, Hosea Gardner 17 and Russell age 4. Russell’s mother, Jessie, claimed to have birthed six children with five living, indicating that one had died and two other children had moved on in life already.
In writing this biography, I ran across an interesting fact that I have no explanation for but intend to pursue the reasoning behind. Apparently, segregated racial housing in Marion did not exist before the time period between 1912-20. According to a statement made by a friend and cohort of Russell Duncan, Clara Kirk, when she moved to Marion in 1912, black citizens could live anywhere and white citizens as well as black occupied the Gent and Burnett Additions of Marion. By the 1920 census, most black families were living only in those sections of town.
In the 1920 census, the Gardner family had moved to 514 W. Gent Street and Henry, now 64, was working as a coal miner. Russell was then 15 and still attending school. No other siblings were in the home by then.
She finished high school in Marion graduating around 1922.
On February 27, 1924, Russell married Dewey Duncan. Dewey was born in Elizabethtown, Illinois in Hardin County on September 2, 1898. In 1918, Dewey was working as a porter in Harrisburg, Illinois.
A 1927 Marion directory located the couple living at 514 W. Gent Street. Dewey was working as porter at the Julian Barber Shop at 102 W. Main Street, unfortunately one of the few types of jobs that a black man could hold at the time.
A year later in 1928, a directory indicated that the couple was living at 302 W. Slater Street. Dewey was then a porter at the State Bank Barber Shop in the Marion State and Savings Bank, the old Hotel State building.
By the 1930 census, Dewey 32 and Russell 24, were living at 309 W. Slater Street which they rented for $5 per month. The couple had two children, Dewey Jr., aged 4 years and 3 months and Iona Duncan, aged one year and 9 months old. Dewey was a boot black (shoe shiner) at a barber shop and Russell was working as a cook for a private family.
Since she was a child, Mrs. Duncan wanted to teach. Her first teaching assignment was in Carrier Mills, Illinois in 1931 and then Colp, Illinois, through 1941. At some point in the 1930’s, Russell was able to attend two years of college at S.I.U.
When the 1940 census was taken on May 18th, Russell, then aged 36, was living at 514 W. Gent St. with her 74 year old, widowed mother who was drawing old age assistance. Russell was 36 and had her children Dewey Jr., 14, and Iona, 11, with her. They had been living there since at least 1935. Her mother owned the home and valued it at $500. Russell was paying her mother $5 per month in rent and was listed as a public school teacher. Russell had worked 52 weeks the prior year of 1939 and made $760 for that year. She noted that she had two years of college.
During the WWII years, she worked at the Illinois Ordnance Plant, but she returned to her beloved children and teaching soon after the war ended.
In August of 1944, Russell, applied for a delayed birth record through Tennessee which confirmed her birth mother, location and date of birth as noted.
She continued attending Southern Illinois University, where she earned a B.A and a M.S. degree and started living at 809 S. Liberty Street.
Russell’s estranged husband, Dewey Duncan, passed away on October 7, 1951.
By the early 1950’s, Russell, who was then listed as Russell Allen, got a job working for Marion Unit #2 as a teacher at the Douglass School in Marion where she befriended the principal, Clara Kirk. A nine month teaching contract signed on May 17, 1954 indicated that pay in those days was $3,400 paid in 12 payments of $283.33. The president of the Board of Education then was Emil Feurer.
In 1963, the Egyptian Chapter of the Dale Carnegie Alumni Association was formed and Russell served as the chapter’s treasurer.
When Douglass school was closed in 1965, both Russell and Clara were reassigned to the Logan School where they finished their careers and officially retired in 1969.
Mrs. Duncan subsequently relocated to Southern California to live with her daughter, Iona, in Los Angeles. She enjoyed a few years of retirement but eventually decided that she still had some teaching to do. She went back to work teaching at a Catholic School, Mother of Sorrows, from 1971 until 1977 when due to a budget crunch she was asked to return on a part time basis.
She, however, was not ready to be a “part timer” and so moved on to the First Church of God Christian School. Mrs. Duncan continued there until she was forced by eye problems to regretfully retire in 1983. Mrs. Duncan was asked by the Principal of the school, Mrs. Feager Pertilla, to return as a resource teacher and she did so for another four years.
Russell (Gardner) Duncan passed away in Los Angeles, California on October 5, 1991 at the age of 87.
Mrs. Duncan was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho, a lifetime member of the N.E.A., the I.E.A. and the M.U.E.A.
Mrs. Duncan was a beautiful person with a warm and loving spirit. She was a committed Christian who had spent her life educating young people. Mrs. Duncan enriched the lives of thousands of children as they have passed through her classroom.
In 1958, she issued a message to the students of Douglass School:
“My message to the students is an old fashioned one. Stay in school, obey your teachers, study your lesson, and return your teacher’s love.
Teaching is sometimes a thankless job. However, you’ll never know how much you mean to the children who are in your classroom. You may never know what good you have done for some child. On the other hand, some results may come right away. What a joy it is to have a former student tell you how much they appreciated what you have done for them. So make your love and kindness show each day, that each child is special.”
Sam’s Notes:
Dewey Duncan, Jr. was born in Marion on August 26, 1925 and died in Murphysboro on October 12, 1988 where he was living. He is interred in Rose Hill Cemetery.
(Extracted from Federal Census Records; WWI Draft Registrations; Tennessee Delayed Birth Records; Marion City Directories; Marion City Cemetery Records; Social Security Death Records; Southern Illinoisan articles; Marion Daily Republican Articles; Williamson County Historical Society records; Douglass School memory kit; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 02/13/2014)