BERNARDSTON — After a two-hour, family-produced interview with Russell Deane was shared with the public at the Bernardston Senior Center over the weekend, his family hopes to inspire others to document the lives of their loved ones, too.
The Senior Center at 20 Church St. was close to standing-room only for the screening and subsequent question-and-answer session. The film features Deane sharing snippets from his 98 years of life, guided by the most important things to him: his family and his church.
While the interviews themselves are titled simply “Interviews of Russell L. Deane,” Bernardston Historical Commission member Marvin Shedd, who moderated the question-and-answer session, offered a subhead.
“Faith, family, community, all tied together with love,” he said.
A rich life
During Saturday’s screening, Deane’s eldest daughter, Diane Ellis, and Jim Barber, a representative of the Bernardston Historical Society and Ellis’ husband, led the audience through the interview. They provided bits of context before different sections where Deane discussed varying subjects, from his first date with his late wife Lillian, to their family’s dedication to The United Arc, for which he was a charter member, and everything else in his decades of service to the community and Franklin County.
Barber explained that the project was an idea that Louella Atherton, the late Bernardston resident who spearheaded the restoration of the former Powers Institute that now houses the Senior Center and Bernardston Historical Society Museum, had suggested. The family-led interview project was accomplished using a smartphone, tripod and some editing tools to splice together the interviews.
“Diane and I made a list of nine topical areas,” Barber said about the discussion topics that included the construction company Lea & Deane Builders, founded by Deane and Robert Lea, along with his involvement as a lead organizer of the Gas Engine Show, Flea Market & Craft Fair, among others. “We sat at his house three times, had nine videos that were about 15 minutes long, and we ended up with two-and-a-half hours of material.”
Deane explores his birth and early years in the interviews. He was born on Aug. 1, 1928, and raised in Bernardston by parents Charles R. and Gladys E. (Raymond) Deane, along with his late brother and sister, Percy Deane and Helen (Deane) Stotz. Russell Deane would go on to marry Lillian, and the two would have three daughters — Diane, Sherry and Nancy. Deane graduated from the Powers Institute in 1946.
Deane would go on to live a life dedicated to public service. This manifested in several forms, whether it be his decades of service to the town of Bernardston sitting on multiple boards and committees, building homes through Lea & Deane Builders, his involvement with the Bernardston Kiwanis Club or his dedication to the United Church of Bernardston, serving on several of its committees and as one of the lead organizers of the Gas Engine Show, Flea Market & Craft Fair, one of the town’s biggest events each year and a major fundraiser for the church. Deane was also named the Greenfield Recorder’s Citizen of the Year in 2024 at 96 for his lifelong dedication to Franklin County.
Nancy Deane and her life was an important part of Russell Deane’s interview. Nancy was born with Down syndrome, and she died in 2011 at 57 years old. Both Russell and Lillian dedicated their lives to advocating for their daughter and others with physical and intellectual disabilities, with both being charter members of The United Arc. He spoke emotionally about his daughter, the work that went into creating independent living for Nancy and others like her, and who Nancy was as a person. She was described by Ellis as friendly and sociable like her parents.
“You felt privileged really, that you had the opportunity to do that,” Deane said in his interview regarding The United Arc.
Some of the other discussion points were also emotional, like Deane’s fight in the hospital with polio, where he recalled a painful spinal tap, a humorous story of a nurse jumping onto his bed while running away from a bat, and the generosity of a foundation that paid off all the medical bills associated with his treatment.
Some of his stories elicited plenty of smiles and laughter, like when he crashed his father’s car on his first date with Lillian, or a trip to some Canadian glaciers where he drank from glacier water by laying face-down. He was followed by another person who did the same thing, but found it inefficient.
“I said, ‘Well, you could have used this cup that I got right here,'” Deane said in his interview, prompting laughter from the whole room.
After the film was finished, guests had a chance to ask Deane about his life, uncovering some revelations about his talent as a cribbage player, his recollection of living through World War II and rationing, the ways Bernardston has changed during his nearly 10 decades of life, or examples of the generosity of a small-town community, like how his former employees helped rebuild his workshop after a January 2006 fire.
Deane said in his interview that the most important things in his life are his family and his church. He shared his feeling that he’s lived a great life, and that he’s enjoyed it as well.
“And I’m planning on hanging out a little longer,” Deane said.
‘Made some friends along the way’
After the screening and seeing the turnout, Deane said he was “quite happy” to see the response, quipping that he “didn’t do everything bad” and he “made some friends along the way.”
To his daughter Sherry Deane, the project was “really well done.”
“He’s had such a rich life. You can touch on so many different subjects and it’s always full of surprises,” Sherry Deane said, saying that while Russell is her father and she’s seen the interview, he still finds ways to surprise her.
In reflecting on the film screening and the project as a whole, Ellis and Barber both stressed just how easy this type of interview project is, especially with the advent of current technology.
“We want to inspire you to go away and do the same thing,” Barber said, adding, “I have a feeling some of you have thought about doing this, but you’ve never done it.”
