Dora Oake Russell (March 7, 1912 – February 9, 1986) was a writer and educator in

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

Life

The daughter of Jesse Oake and Laura Brinson, she was born Dora Oake at

Change Islands Change Islands is an outport community in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The community spans two small islands of the same name which lie off the northeast coast of the island of Newfoundland between Notre Dame Bay and the La ...

. She was educated there and at Bishop Spencer College. She completed a teacher training course and began teaching in St. John's in 1933. She married Ted Russell in January 1935. The couple moved to Springdale later that year. In 1939, they moved to

Harbour Breton Harbour Breton is a small fishing community on the Connaigre Peninsula in Fortune Bay, on the south coast of the island of Newfoundland in Canada. It is the largest center on the Connaigre Peninsula and was long considered the unofficial capital o ...

and then lived in

Bonne Bay Bonne Bay is a bay in Newfoundland and Labrador, Newfoundland, Canada. It is located on the western coast of Newfoundland and separates the Great Northern Peninsula from the rest of the island. It is a part of Gros Morne National Park. It is s ...

from 1940 until 1943, when they moved back to St. John's. Later that year, she became the first women's editor of '' The Evening Telegram''. She retired from the newspaper in 1949. During the 1950s, she was women's editor for ''The Daily News''. She later wrote a weekly column for ''The Evening Telegram'' during the 1960s. Besides writing for newspapers, she also wrote short fiction, plays for radio and television and a book ''Day by Day: Pages from the Diary of a Newfoundland Woman'', published in 1983. Russell was a founding member of the St. John's Centre branch of the

Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...

and was also a leader in the

Girl Guides of Canada Girl Guides of Canada (GGC; french: Guides du Canada) is the national Guiding association of Canada. Guiding in Canada started on September 7, 1910, and GGC was among the founding members of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (W ...

; she is credited with helping to create the astronomy badge for Girl Guides and establishing its criteria. Dora and her husband had five children, including Elizabeth (Russell) Miller and Kelly Russell, a popular Newfoundland musician.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Dora Oake 1912 births 1986 deaths Journalists from Newfoundland and Labrador Writers from Newfoundland and Labrador