For those who don't know Jane Russell (full name: Jane Geraldine Russell), Russell was an American film actress and one of Hollywood's leading sex icons in the 1940s and 1950s. After starring in various movies in the 1950s, Russell again returned to music while completing several other films in the 1960s. She starred in more than 20 films throughout her career. For her achievements in film, Russell received several accolades including having her hand and foot prints immortalized in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese Theatre and a star on the "Hollywood Walk of Fame". It has to be noted that legendary Jane Russell was a recovering alcoholic who had gone into rehab at the age of 79 and described herself in a 2003 interview as: "These days I am a teetotal, mean-spirited, right-wing, narrow-minded, conservative Christian bigot, but not a racist."
Russell lived in the Santa Maria Valley along the Central Coast of California. Although she largely retired from Hollywood after her final film, 1970's "Darker Than Amber," Russell had remained active in her church, with charitable organizations and with a local singing group until her health began to decline just a couple weeks ago.
According to her family, she died at her home in Santa Maria of a respiratory failure on February 28, 2011. She was 89. She is survived by three children: Thomas Waterfield, Tracy Foundas and Robert Waterfield, six grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Her funeral was held on March 12, 2011 at Pacific Christian Church, Santa Maria.
Her daughter-in-law, Etta Waterfield told The Associated Press: "She always said I'm going to die in the saddle, I'm not going to sit at home and become an old woman. "And that's exactly what she did, she died in the saddle."
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