AREA OBITUARIES – Jacquelyn Johnson Russell

Jacquelyn Johnson Russell, 76, of Union City, Tenn., passed away on Sat., April 4, 2026, at St. Francis Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn.
Services will be held at 4 p.m. Sat., April 11, 2026, at Troy First Baptist Church. Bro. Rick Roberts will be officiating. Burial will follow in Obion County Memorial Gardens.
Visitation will be held Fri., April 10, 2026, from 5 - 7 p.m. at the church, and Sat. from 2 p.m. until the hour of service at the church.
Pallbearers will be Samuel Russell, Brad Barber, Adam Cross, Perry Jett, Jarred Clayton, Jonathan Pettus, Nathan Chupp, and Max Dame.
“Jackie” was born Jan 5, 1950, in Union City, to the late Oval Johnson and Irene Johnson, the fourth, final and fabulous of their dazzling, delightful daughters, the late Yvonne “Polly” Jett, Betty Jo Barber and Janie Gill, also of Union City.
Jackie was a Obion County native, attending Dixie School and Obion County Central High School, graduating in 1968.
Jackie then attended the University of Tennessee at Martin, graduating with her Bachelor’s degree in elementary education in 1971 and her Master’s degree in education in 1976.
She met her beloved husband, Bobby Russell of Savannah, Tenn., in 1969 in the former Dairy Queen parking lot in Union City.
He knew she was the one and they married on Sat., Aug. 28, 1971, and moved to Memphis, Tenn. the next day, where Bobby started pharmacy school and Jackie started her teaching career on that Monday.
Jackie first taught at Wedlock Elementary school in Earl, Ark., before being transferred to the former L.R. Jackson Elementary school in West Memphis, Ark.
Upon Bobby’s graduation from University of Tennessee Pharmacy School, the couple moved back to Obion County, where Bobby began working as a Pharmacist at the former, Gibson’s in Union City, and Jackie became one of the first special education teachers at South Fulton School.
Obion County transferred Jackie as a kindergarten teacher at Dixie School before being transferred to teach kindergarten and second grade at Lake Road Elementary School after Dixie was closed upon the district’s consolidation of several smaller schools. She retired from teaching at the end of the 2006-07 school year, to care for her first grandchild.
Jackie and Bobby welcomed their first child, Matthew, in 1978, and a daughter, Megan, in 1980.
Jackie was always a devoted, passionate fan of all sports of the Lake Road Generals, the Obion County Central High School Rebels and University of Tennessee Volunteers. She became a devoted fan of Hillcrest Elementary in Troy and South Fulton schools; the schools her three grandchildren attended.
She loved all sports but nothing matched her love for Obion County Central High School basketball. She could never hear Van Halen’s song, “Jump” without snapping her fingers and singing along, never missing a single lyric. If on her feet, she danced along and if seated or driving she had an epic “finger dance.”
Jackie loved her family and was of the Baptist faith, attending First Baptist Church of Troy for over 30 years. She loved to travel with her mother and sisters and with Bobby, taking advantage of retirement to visit locations throughout the country and visiting Canada and Okinawa, Japan.
Jackie loved fishing, and playing in golf tournaments every year with Matt and Bobby. She rarely missed her weekly ladies golf game in Wynridge Greens in Troy and the Hickman Country Club.
For the last several years Jackie was a co-owner and operator of Sister’s Antiques and Gifts in Union City, where you felt the love of her entire family each and every day you walked through the door.
Jackie is survived by her husband Bobby Russell, of Union City; her son and daughter-in-law, Matthew and Laura Russell and their two children, Marikate and Samuel, and fur baby Libby, all of Troy; her daughter and son-in-law, Megan (Russell) and Brad Dame and their son, Max, of South Fulton; her two sisters, Janie Gill of Union City, and Betty Jo Barber and her brother-in-law, Wayne Barber, all of Union City.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her sister Polly; her sister-in-law, Rita Hurst; and her mother and father-in-law, James and Dexter Russell.