From Proud Heritage, Vol 1 by DCPA, not currently in print.
Russell Birdwell and Armilda McCullough Jones (daughter of Fereby McCullough Jones and John Henry Jones) were married in 1869. He was an evangelist in the Methodist Church. Having always had poor health, he developed tuberculosis at an early age which interrupted his work. He went to San Angelo, Texas seeking help. He died in 1916 at the age of 47. Armilda and Russell had one son, Russell Jones Birdwell.
Russell Jones Birdwell had two daughters and one son, Russell Birdwell. The latter went to Bryan High School in Dallas.
On his own initiative Russell Birdwell sent stories to the leading newspapers in the city; the Journal, Dispatch, and Times-Herald. The fact that his stories were always rejected did not discourage him. He finally attracted the attention of the City Editor of the Dispatch who said to an assistant, “This kid seems to have the stuff. Send him over to see me next time he comes in.” The Dispatch gave Birdwell his first reporter’s job while he was still in school. In an old worn, and yellow newspaper clipping from the Dispatch -Journal (unfortunately with no date) we have the following: “From part time reporting during his high school and college career (University of Texas at Austin) Birdwell rose to be one of the country’s ace reporters covering many nationally important cases and, ‘scored a world-wide scoop on Lindberg’s take-off for Paris; took time off to break into Hollywood where he was, in quick succession, a motion picture director, a motion picture writer, and finally found his niche as a publicist.’ How well he succeeded is best answered by a paragraph in Life magazine which said, ‘Perhaps the ablest and certainly the best known publicist in Hollywood is Russell Birdwell’.”
By Jimmie D. McSween and Mabel E. Maxcy, Dallas
