Billy Raye Russell

Billy Raye Russell

The last son of Clarence and Ethel Russell was finally able to join his parents and his 12 siblings for a joyful family reunion in Heaven on May 8, 2025.

Bill and his twin sister Gloria (Sissy) Granger were born on February 6th, 1941, in Swartz, Louisiana. Sissy always joked over the years saying, “It’s the first time he was ever a gentleman and kicked her out first.”

Bill was known by a lot of people and was also known by many names. Some called him Bill, Billy, William, Mr. Bill, Snake and Bronson are a few that come to mind.

Bill was married for 60 years to Mary Richard Russell before her passing in May of 2022. They lived in Little Cypress where they raised their four children, Clarence, Wendy, Carol and Susan.

Bill didn’t say it often, but he showed his love through his actions. The things he did for you and his willingness to help you was how he showed the love that he had for you. His love language was his act of service for you.

Everyone often speaks about a mothers love, but often people forget about the fathers sacrifice.

Bill worked hard for his family over the years. He worked for Cities Service in Lake Charles, he also worked construction for many years and finally ending his working years with RCI in Beaumont as their purchasing agent. He never liked to sit still and often talked about missing being at work. After he retired, you could always find him in his shop piddling and tinkering on some new project.

Bill was known as a “jack of all trades”. He always had his tape measure on as part of his daily attire. He could fix anything that was broken and sometimes even fix things that weren’t broken because he felt his way would work better. (And to be honest, he was normally right, it usually did work better.)

He missed his calling on being an engineer with all the things he made that he should have had patented, but he never wanted to no matter how much his family encouraged him. One of his inventions for his son was fixing a bicycle with a motor on it to ride in the neighborhood, (today similar to an electric bike.)

His family can only imagine the renovations that are now taking place in Heaven since he arrived.

Bill and Mary loved to go out dancing with family and friends. They won many jitterbug competitions even though he often danced to the beat of his own drum and tried throwing her off with a sneaky sidestep, they still walked away with the trophy.

He enjoyed playing in Pool tournaments (hence the nickname Snake).

And he had great times at the horse races with his good friend, Bobby Dean and many others over the years. Most summers when his kids were little you could find them going to Chatham, Louisiana, to visit his grandmother Lillian Shell and the rest of his relatives living there.

He was preceded in death by his wife Mary; his parents; his brothers and sisters; his son Clarence; and his grandson Russell Naegele.

Leaving behind are his daughters, Wendy Sanchez and husband Paul, Carol Naegele and husband James, Susan Duck and husband Dwayne, Trudie Shelton and husband Kurt (It’s unspoken but she was secretly the favorite one in the group).

Grandkids, Christopher Wilson, Melita Naegele, Jonathan Naegele, Jasmin Duck, Josh Russell, Holeigh Wiley, Hannah Minner; and numerous great grands.

A sincere thank you to Danielle Cormier, Hope Kay, Mary Matote, Rachelle Wilson, and Ashley Kirk, and others at the Golden Years facility. He was truly blessed to have you, and we appreciate you treating him with such kindness. We felt you were family to us, and not just a facility.

Memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, May 17, 2025, at Claybar Funeral Home in Orange.

A visitation will begin prior to the service at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, May 17, 2025, at Claybar Funeral Home in Orange.

And in true Bill Russell fashion, as he would often say “Catch ya on the flip side.”

Billy service will be livestream for those you can not make it. You can find a link to it on our website claybarfuneralhome.com.