Portrayal tells the life of CMR's wife

The old Faber Schoolhouse on the Great Northern Fairgrounds was full of people sitting in the old-style, classroom wooden desks Thursday night.

The overflow crowd was sitting in folding chairs along the side of the room, They were fanning themselves because of the stifling heat.

At the front, Mary Jane Bradbury from Humanities Montana was talking to the crowd, playing the role of Nancy Cooper Russell. Russell was the wife of famed Western painter Charles W. Russell.

After a rough childhood in Tennessee, Nancy Russell found herself in Helena, penniless. She befriended an influential fami...