Called Blandina after a Christian martyr of the Second Century, Ina Dillard was born February 18, 1868, in Ogelthorpe County, Georgia, the thirteenth and last child of America Frances Chaffin and Fielding Dillard. She was a petite, bright girl child who grew to be arguably the most influential woman in the history of the state of Georgia.
Prosperous and hard-working farmers, her parents reared ten of their own children to adulthood and gave a home to at least eight orphans. Devout Christians, the Dillards believed everyone should be educated in order to read and study the Bible. Ina went to school locally, then to Palmer Institute in Oxford, GA., and Lucy Cobb Institute in Athens. She became a third grade teacher in Athens in 1889.
To Ina Dillard, however, the example of her mother's career was the inspiration for her life. There was no greater calling than that of Christian wife and mother. On June 24, 1891, she married Richard Brevard Russell, a young lawyer from Athens who was Solicitor General of the Western Circuit, and her stellar career in the role of wife and mother began.
Active in Georgia politics all his life, Richard Russell ran for governor twice, the U.S.
Daughters were born to Richard and Ina in 1893, 1894 and 1896. A son was born on November 2, 1897. He was named Richard Brevard Russell, Jr., and Richard Russell, Sr. felt satisfied with his family. When he suggested limiting the family, Ina said she would have all the children God intended her to have, which turned out to be fifteen, including one set of twin boys. Two children died in infancy, but Richard and Ina worked together to rear the others to be responsible human beings who would serve their own families and communities.
The Russells moved to Winder from Athens in 1894 because Richard felt the Winder area was a growing one where he had a better chance to establish a name for himself than he had in the older area of Athens. In 1902, he chartered the City of Russell, and the family moved out to the little settlement about a mile and a half from Winder in the summer of 1903.
At Russell, Richard leased land to tenant farmers and started a hosiery mill and a bottling works. Because he was often away at court, the businesses did not prosper. Ina kept the books on the farming, selling guano, seed, and groceries on credit, with accounts settled at the end of the year when crops had been sold. In her ledgers she recorded garments she sewed: underwear, dresses, shirts, waists, and skirts for her children, for her cook and housekeeper, and for her two sisters who often came to help her. Although she did not enjoy sewing and felt that she was not good at it, her 1912 ledger shows she made more than 200 garments.
Ina did washing, ironing, and cooking when servants were ill, or in order to save money for Richard. She cooked on a wood stove and did not have electricity until 1930, nor indoor plumbing until 1934. She much preferred working outside to housework and planted peanuts, cotton, tomatoes and potatoes to make money and to feed her family. Her flower garden was a great joy to her and to her family. When Bill Russell, one of her twin boys, was in the Navy during World War II, he wrote his mother that her flowers were more beautiful than all those he saw in Hawaii.
Ina insisted her children have a good education. Richard hired teachers to come to Russell and live with the family, but Ina and her maiden sister Patience Dillard often had to step in to teach. At the age of thirteen or fourteen, each child was sent away to school, and Ina rose early or sat up late to write long, newsy letters to her absent children, instructing them on healthy living habits, the importance of studying while young, and proper behavior in all circumstances.
"I want to ask you not to drink any kind of soft drinks--ever. Cut them out entirely & candy too. I want you to grow strong & be a man. You can't do it if you indulge in these things," she wrote to her boys. Or: "My boy, I'm depending on you to do the right thing Saturday [at the football game]. Surely your mother has helped you in fourteen years to know how to conduct yourself 'at home and abroad. Always have a good time, but be a gentleman."
Ina's eldest son, Richard Brevard Russell, Jr., became one of Georgia's most famous citizens. He was governor of Georgia in 1931 when he was only 34 years old, and two years later he was elected to the United States Senate, the youngest Senator at the time, and he served for 37 years, becoming one of the most powerful men in Washington. He often said he was ten years old before he ever saw his mother sleep, and when he did see her asleep it frightened him terribly. He thought she must be sick. He gave his mother great credit for his success. There is no doubt that she inspired in him a remarkable work ethic and a high character.
Ina was proud of all her children, not because they were famous or powerful, but because they were useful and responsible human beings, as she had taught them to be. Four of her daughters became teachers, one a secretary, and one a lawyer, in addition to founding their own homes. Her sons made careers in politics, law, medicine, the military, business, teaching and the ministry; and they, too, founded homes.
An example of the ideals which Ina Dillard Russell promoted in all her children comes from Ina Dillard Russell, Jr. Ina, Jr. was the first Russell in Washington, going there during World War I to work for the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, which later became the Veterans Administration. She studied law at George Washington University and was admitted to the Georgia Bar in 1930, but continued her work as a claims adjudicator for the VA. In her work, she helped many widows and orphans of veterans, as well as veterans. Sometimes when the government was slow in sending funds, she sent her own money to help tide over a difficult situation.
The Library at Georgia College, formerly Georgia State College for Women, where five of her daughters went to school, is named for Ina Dillard Russell. In 1950, she was elected Georgia's Mother of the Year, and Winder put on a gala celebration for her: a parade from her home in Russell through downtown Winder to the football stadium where she received a citation from Governor Herman Talmadge. Twelve of her children came to celebrate with her. The thirteenth, Walter Brown Russell, was serving in the United States Army in Japan. Although Ina was nearly blind at this time and could no longer write letters, she insisted that her children write him a long letter describing the event.
Ina Dillard Russell's love was not just for her family. Her strength of character, her capacity for love and work, and her faith in humankind inspired not only her children, but many, many others who came to her home through the years. Thousands, with sincere respect and affection, called her Mother Russell. When she died on August 30, 1953, they came by the hundreds from all over the country to pay their respects and celebrate the life of a truly great soul. The day she was buried Georgia flags flew at half-mast.
My father was the fourteenth child of Richard and Ina. It was my good fortune to inherit the letters of Ina, Sr. to Ina, Jr. when my aunt died in 1991. When I had read only those letters I felt if others could be found Ina Dillard could tell her own remarkable story. Through digging in the family records and in the Russell Library at the University of Georgia, I found over 200 letters. It has been a great privilege to assemble them and choose and edit ones for the story because in so doing I had the joy of living with my grandmother for three years. The results are an inspiring book to be published by the University of Georgia Press, a book which will make any one with Dillard blood in their veins proud. Publication date has not been set, but when it is, I will certainly let you know.
Although the title could change, it is currently this: Roots and Ever Green The Letters of Ina Dillard Russell. I based this title on a verse from George Peele's Polyhymnia, written in 1590, which illustrates the life of Ina Dillard Russell.