Earlene McPherson Russo was born on March 19, 1928, in Silerton, Tenn., the third child of Oather and Erlby McPherson. She always spoke highly of her mother’s resourcefulness in raising six children during the depression. At 18, she moved to Memphis where she worked for Humble Oil. In Memphis, she met her future husband, Walter Christopher Russo, while he studied to become an optometrist. They later moved to Bay St. Louis, where they raised their beloved daughter, Leigh Anne, and became active members in the Presbyterian Church before their retirement in Destin.
Earlene found and fiercely pursued many hobbies throughout her life, whether she was winning neighborhood awards for her green thumb evidenced in her home garden, taking home trophies for her golf game, wading through yard sales and salvage centers for precious antiques, or recreating the dishes that her husband loved from his New Orleans upbringing, she tackled it all with a pursuit for mastery.
After her only daughter went off to school, she dove into oil painting, a creative pursuit that she returned to when her husband Walter passed after 53 years of marriage. She decided to sign up for art classes at a local college where she befriended her favorite professor, J.B., and embarked on a new chapter of life that included solo international travel at 75 years old, after having previously never left the east coast.
Perhaps one of her favorite roles though was that of a warm and doting grandmother, where she never failed to make a delicious homemade strawberry cake for every birthday or give a backscratch that would lull you to sleep.
Earlene passed peacefully on Monday, July 7, 2025, after 97 years of life. She will be missed greatly by her family, Leigh Anne Carpenter (Joc Carpenter) of Port Gibson; granddaughters Ashley Bates (Jeff Bates) of Madison and Lesleigh Patton of Charleston, S.C.; and great-granddaughters Nora and Alleigh Bates.
She is preceded in death by her parents, four of her siblings, and her husband Walter, who she frequently spoke of at the end, and is no doubt happily reunited with.
A special thank you to her wonderful caregivers, Olivia Hedrick, Carolyn Barnes, and Phelshia Coffie. No public memorial will be held.
If anyone wishes to privately honor her, Earlene was a lover of birds and nature. Memorials may also be made to an organization of one’s choice.
