Sunday, April 28, 2024
Ronnie Russell, age 74, of Gatesville, passed away on Monday, Oct. 23, 2023.
Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 30, 2023, at Scott’s Funeral Home. The family will receive visitors one hour prior to the service. Interment will follow at Ater Cemetery.
Ronald Thomas Russell was born on July 29, 1949, to the late Paul and Laura Hampton Russell in Gatesville. He grew up and attended school in Jonesboro, graduating in 1967. After high school, he attended Howard Payne University on a baseball scholarship. After college, Ronnie played baseball, traveling around the state as part of a semi-pro baseball league, and continued to play for local teams afterwards. He met Sonja Nelson while attending Tarleton State University, and the two were married in 1976, having two children together. They made their home in Levita. Ronnie taught school at the State School for Boys before accepting a position at Gatesville ISD as a coach and teacher in 1973. He remarried in 1994 and had three children. He continued to work at Gatesville I.S.D. as a teacher, teaching students in the 6th through 8th grades until his retirement in 2013. Even after his retirement, he remained at Gatesville I.S.D. as a school bus driver and was recognized for having 50 years of service in 2023. He enjoyed farming and watching his cows from the back porch.
He was preceded in death by his parents; wife, Sonja; and a brother, Jackie Russell.
Ronnie is survived by his children, Mandy Zbranek and husband, Josh, Jimbo Russell and wife, Stacy, Whitney Kinyaevskaya and husband, George, Carson Russell, and Mason Russell; sister, Jane Slemmons and husband, Alan; sister-in-law, Barbara Russell; and grandchildren, Lila Russell, Tucker Russell, Aurora Kinyaevskaya, and August Kinyaevskaya.
