“Within a year or so, I was working on a cover story, and I was interviewing Marvin Troup, CEO of Bloomingdale’s. I was just that wet kid behind my ear, and Beverly gave me a head start.”
“The guys ran the show at the time,” she added. “When Beverly acquired Interiors, she saw herself as a woman who made her mark in the industry, and I think that was important to her.”
Beverly Ann Russell was born on December 9, 1934 in London. Her father, Leslie, was a department store executive. Her mother, Maud (James) Russell, was a homemaker. As a girl, Beverly read voraciously and became enamored of the written word; She handed in book-length homework when she was 14.
Her first job in journalism was at The Manchester Evening News, and as she chased stories around town, she met fellow journalist Roger Birdwood, whom she married. When he was hired for a magazine in New York, she moved there with him and their young son, and soon got a job at Condé Nast.
In addition to her son, her sister Jillian Redfern Runes is survived. Her marriage to Mr. Birdwood ended in divorce, as did her marriage to photographer John Naar.
In her seventies, Mrs. Russell moved to Mexico, and immersed herself in the artistic expat community of San Miguel de Allende for six years. She has also focused on personal projects, and has released self-published books with spiritual themes such as Lines on Old Age and Crossings: Words of Comfort. She later lived in the British House, a retirement community in Sierra Madre, California, geared toward English lovers and people from Britain.
About a year ago, Mrs. Russell learned that she had a terminal heart condition, and that the finality of her diagnosis – as well as the loss of independence she felt accompanied by it – deeply disturbed her. I recently moved to New Mexico, where physician-assisted suicide is legal, and underwent the procedure this month.