Blaine County Museum hosts portrayal of Nancy Cooper Russell

Mary Jane Bradbury is a Chautauqua speaker for Humanities Montana and the Colorado Humanities. Her specialty is portrayals of pioneer women who made significant contributions to their respective states and regions. She recently appeared at the Blaine County Museum and did a portrayal of Nancy Russell, the wife and business manager of western artist Charles Russell. Before the performance she said she started portrayals about 15 years ago and began doing the Nancy Russell portrayal about five years ago.

Explaining why she began doing portrayals, she said, "I have a background in acting and education. Someone asked me to do a portrayal of a Colorado pioneer. Suddenly all my interests converged and I was hooked." She now lives in Helena and each January is the artist-in-residence at the Russell Museum in Great Falls where she does the Nancy Russell portrayal about 37 times during the month. Bradbury does individual presentation on several pioneer women.

Under the name Alice Palmer, which she describes as her 'alter ego,' Bradbury is an active shooter in the Ladies Senior Division of Cowboy Action Shooting. She explained, "Once introduced to the idea of single action shooting (the hammer on the firearm has to be manually cocked before each shot) I found I enjoyed the sport. My time at the range and matches allows me to channel the spirit of frontier women." She added, "Without bragging, I will say I'm a pretty good shot."

Nancy Russell's story

Bradbury uses a pleasing southern drawl as she portrays Nancy Russell. Nancy Cooper Russell grew up on a tobacco farm in Kentucky. It was a marginal existence and she and her siblings had little opportunity for education as the tobacco crop required a lot of hand labor.

Charlie Russell came to Montana to pursue his dream of being a cowboy in 1880, when he was just 16. When Nancy was 10 years old, in 1888, her stepfather brought the family to Montana with plans to mine for gold. Five years later the family returned to Kentucky, but Nancy was left in Helena, basically homeless and penniless. She got a job with a family in Cascade, caught a ride on a freight wagon for the 30-mile trip southwest and started a new life as a domestic worker.

Nancy shortly met Charlie Russell when he came as a dinner guest of the family where she was working. While washing up at a basin in the kitchen, Charlie winked at her and things developed from there. In 1896 they married, Charlie was 14 years older than his new bride. Nancy's health was not good and a doctor warned Charlie, "She will not last three years." Nancy turned out to be tougher than the doctor predicted, outliving Charlie by several years.

Nancy recognized the talent that Charlie Russell had as a painter and sculptor. She also saw he had a rather undisciplined approach to his art, preferring to hang out with friends and tell stories rather than paint, and had no business sense about selling his art. Early on Charlie gave away many of his paintings, drawings and sculptures, often to pay a bar bill or show appreciation to a friend who helped him out.

First, Nancy saw a need for a place for Charlie to paint, he needed a studio. She took the initiative, ordered logs and had them delivered to their house in Great Falls, near the present Russell Museum. She had workmen build a cabin, much like the one he had lived in with a commercial hunter when he first arrived in Montana. Nancy said, "Charlie never really took to the studio idea until one of our neighbors suggested it would work as a studio." Charlie soon moved his painting equipment to the cabin and Nancy said, "Whether he started a painting in the studio or somewhere else (many were started at their lodge on McDonald Lake at Glacier Park) he always finished them here."

Nancy soon took over all the domestic responsibilities of running the household. She saw her role as "keeping the world away from Charlie while he painted." She described his typical workday in Great Falls as "painting until noon, going downtown in the afternoon to visit with his buddies, back home for dinner then reading or relaxing at home in the evening." She described those times in Great Falls as "some of the best times of our married life."

After attending the Lewis and Clark Exposition in St. Louis, in 1904, Charlie and Nancy went to New York City to explore ways to promote and sell his art. Nancy said, "I took it on myself to learn how publications and galleries worked. I became the promoter of Charlie's career." She added, "Some people felt I was too controlling of his career. I took some verbal abuse because I insisted his work be sold for what it was really worth. For some critics I was a bad person for protecting and building his reputation as an artist."

Nancy's strategies paid off. In 1920 one of Charlie's paintings sold for $10,000, the most ever paid for a painting by a living artist. The Russell's had made connections in California, where people were making lots of money and willing to spend it to buy art. During this time Charlie developed a friendship with Will Rogers, who was making movies. Nancy said, "Charlie was fascinated with the movies and how they were made. He believed movies would eventually make paintings obsolete and of no interest to collectors."

In 1926 the Russell's started a house in California. About the same time Charlie was diagnosed with a goiter, which was successfully removed by surgery. But, his doctor told both of them separately that Charlie's heart was seriously damaged and the condition would quickly prove to be fatal. Charlie died in 1926. Nancy never returned to live at the house in Great Falls, moving to California. She died in 1940, still shepherding Charlie's art. He created some 4,000 pieces of art doing his career.

Charlie once wrote about Nancy's impact on his career, "Without her I would probably have never attempted to soar or reach any height, further than to make a few pictures for my friends and old acquaintances...I still love and long for the old west, but would sacrifice it all for Mrs. Russell." Mary Jane Bradbury, summing her historical view of Nancy and Charlie said, "They were a remarkable couple who needed each other."