Free Press journalist, author Frances Russell dead at 80

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This article was published 03/10/2022 (815 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Longtime Winnipeg Free Press political columnist, freelance journalist and author Frances Russell has died.

She was 80.

Russell died of heart failure Friday morning at St. Boniface Hospital after her health waned recently, said her husband of 53 years, Ken Murdoch.

She had a stroke three years ago and had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as a long-term heart condition, said Murdoch, 85.

Russell, born in 1941, wrote two non-fiction books: Mistehay Sakahegan, the Great Lake, about Lake Winnipeg, and The Canadian Crucible: Manitoba’s Role in Canada’s Great Divide, about French-English relations in the province and their effect on Canadian history.

She wrote a column on provincial and national politics three times each week for the Free Press from 1981 to 1999, and contributed to the paper’s pages regularly afterward.

“Frances brought a perspective and a voice that not only helped define Free Press coverage of politics, but also opened doors for other women to follow in her footsteps as a columnist,” Free Press editor-in-chief Paul Samyn said Tuesday.

“I had the good fortune to work with her at our legislative bureau, which gave me a first-hand glimpse at her institutional knowledge and the authority she brought to her analysis of all things political in our province and country.”

She had also worked for the Vancouver Sun and the Globe and Mail, as well as the Winnipeg Tribune and the United Press International news wire service in Ottawa.

Murdoch, a retired United Church clergyman and social worker, said the couple had an eventful life largely because of Russell’s work as a journalist.

Her perceptiveness of the political scene was a standout in her career, he said.

“Particularly on the national scene, and secondarily in Manitoba,” he said.

Her family had a cottage on the west side of Lake Winnipeg and the couple had cottages at Victoria Beach and Balsam Bay, Murdoch said.

“She had a very strong fondness for the lake — of course one of her books was on Lake Winnipeg,” Murdoch said.

“She was a lover of Winnipeg; whenever we moved away, we’d always come back.”

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera