Russell Lee Aulston

RUSSEL LEE AULSTON Funeral services for lifelong area resident Russel Lee Aulston will be held at 10 a.m. on Friday, October 21 at Trinity Lutheran Church. Interment will follow at Cortez Cemetery. Pastor Barr Chittick will officiate. Military honors will be provided by the Ute Mountain American Legion Post #75. Visitation has been scheduled for Thursday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. at Ertel Memorial Chapel. Russel was born April 9, 1918 in Palo Pinto County, Gordon, Tex. His parents, Lonnie and Rosie moved near Denton, Tex. then onto Oklahoma. In 1930, Lonnie said, "We're moving to Colorado where they don't raise cotton." This sounded good to Rosie and the kids, Russel, Ann Marie and Pearl, who had been working in the cotton fields. They arrived in Yellow Jacket on July 4, 1930. Little did they know they would be grubbing oak brush, felling trees and picking up sticks and rocks where Lonnie homesteaded a place near the Yellow Jacket Canyon. Later they were hoeing and shocking pinto beans, walking to school three miles to the Four Corners School. Russel worked at the McPhee Sawmill for lumber to build the family a house south of Yellow Jacket, then he worked as a mechanic at the Ford garage in Cortez. He was inducted into the Army on April 12, 1942, spending most of the time in Fort Lewis, Wash. in the ordinance as a mechanic. He was transferred to Camp Phillips, Kan. near Salina in 1944. It was that time when he met his future wife, Lolita on the train while on furlough going to Washington. He and Lolita corresponded during his time in the service. Russel was sent overseas arriving in Germany on December 8th. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and was captured December 15th with the 106th Division and taken prisoner near Bad Orb, Germany until April 2, 1945 when the U.S. 44th Division busted through the steel gates of the prison with their tanks. He often said it was like God opened those gates! They arrived back to the States in May. He called home in Yellow Jacket to let them know he was fine and was in Denver so going to Cheyenne Wells, Colo. to see Lolita first. He had a 30 day leave but had to report to Fort Ord, Calif. and was stationed there for one year before being discharged on November 2, 1945. He then went to Cheyenne Wells to work for Lolita's father on the farm in the spring of '46. Russel and Lolita were married August 17, 1946. To this union were three children, Leta, Gene and Duane. They moved to Yellow Jacket in 1950 where they farmed. Russel was baptized in the Grace Lutheran Church in Cheyenne Wells on March of 1947. He was a charter member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Cortez. Russel was a very devout Christian and lived his life with Jesus in his heart. Russel leaves his wife, Lolita Aulston; his sons, Gene Aulston and wife, Linda and Duane Aulston and wife, Lorie; his grandchildren, Michael Albrecht, Dennis Aulston, Darrel Aulston, Stacy Heying, Stephanie Aulston, and Anna Aulston; his great-grandchildren Jaden Aulston, Jax Aulston, Jory Aulston, Travis Heying, Trevor Heying, and Tristen Heying; and his siblings, Dessie Zashewicz, Della Richardson, Dorothy Jones, Doris Vaughn, and John Aulston. Russel was preceded in death by his parents; his daughter, Leta May Uhl; and by his siblings, Ann Marie, Pearl, Sarah, Arlene, and Ray. Memorial contributions may be made in Russel's name to the Pleasant View Fire Department P.O. Box 291, Pleasant View, Colo. 81331.