The Organ Thieves by Chip Jones

Author:Chip Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery/Jeter Publishing
Published: 2020-08-18T00:00:00+00:00

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Over time, Richmonders got to know more about Louis and Thelma Russell. Despite the rise of feminism, most newspapers were still dominated by male editors. As such, they usually pushed feature stories about females back to the “women’s pages,” or what became derided as the “pink ghetto.”17 This vestige of male-dominated newsrooms was as true in New York City as it was in Richmond, where the Times-Dispatch squeezed “women’s news” between the business and editorial pages. The old-school treatment was evident in the first story about Thelma Russell headlined “Heart Patient’s Wife Confident.”

On the front of the “Women and Foods” section, a photo of a woman identified as “Mrs. Louis B. Russell Jr.” showed a stylish, shyly smiling woman. She wore a striped scarf and dress, a chic outfit fitting for “a buyer for an Indianapolis department store.”18 Women’s page writer Betty Parker Ashton noted Mrs. Russell’s unique status as “the only Negro department store buyer in the Midwest.” This “slim, gracious and very happy woman,” she wrote, had “visited a Richmond department store… for lunch with a friend who lives here, making one of her few excursions from the hospital and her husband’s side.”19

Thelma Russell put on a brave face. “It was trying,” she said of the operation, “but we believe in God and this has helped me quite a bit.” Asked what she said to her husband before the transplant operation, Mrs. Russell said she couldn’t remember due to “her nervous excitement” that day. She was the only family member who’d come to Virginia. The hospital’s chaplains stayed with her during the operation.

“We knew one of three things would happen,” she said. “Medication, resection or transplant.” With their abiding trust in medicine and the Almighty, the Russells were fine with following Dr. Lower’s advice. (The article didn’t raise the vexing questions about the fate of Bruce Tucker or his heart recipient, Joseph Klett; it seems possible that given the dire state of Louis Russell’s health that they may have been unaware of the doubts raised by the Tuckers and their pending litigation.)

The women’s page reporter kept things light, underscoring the role of a dutiful and stylish wife. She’d returned to Richmond for a week to be “with him whenever he is not taking medication or taking his exercises.”

Her children hadn’t seen Louis in some time, Thelma Russell said, and were “anxious to see ‘Old Dad.’ ” But their father needed time to recuperate and regain his strength before going home.

Over the ensuing weeks at MCV, Louis Russell managed to carve out time for more interviews, including with one of the few women competing with the male reporters at the evening News Leader. Alberta Lindsey knew firsthand about fighting discrimination in the old South: not only did she have to fight to escape the “pink ghetto” assigned to women journalists, she also pushed back against any coddling or discrimination she faced because of her club foot. She’d worked at the paper since 1964, starting as an entry-level clerk answering the phone for the all-male news staff.

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