Family shares colorful backstory of Kittery's Maine Sailors and Soldiers Memorial

Wednesday was a homecoming of sorts for the late James Russo, in a town where he never resided. But he definitely left a lifelong impression in the seaside community of Kittery, Maine.

Nearly 100 years ago, a sculpture was to be created to honor the Maine soldiers and sailors who had served in the recently-concluded First World War. The design revolved around a woman holding a baby in her arms.

So, organizers launched a search for a suitable model.

“As the story goes, Nana, dad’s mother, saw an advertisement for a contest, looking for a baby to model for the statue to go in the John Paul Jones Park,” son Barry Russo recently recalled. “As we all know, Dad won the contest because he had the best ‘biscuits.’”

“Biscuits” refers to the butt cheeks still prominently on display decades later in the Maine Sailors and Soldiers Memorial, facing Portsmouth, New Hampshire, across Memorial Bridge.

James Nicholas Russo died in December 2012 at the age of 90. But on Wednesday, to mark his 100th birthday, his children and other family members gathered in John Paul Jones Park at the monument where he has been immortalized.

In many ways, Russo’s life embodies 20th-century America. Serving as a memorial model to commemorate the First World War was really just the beginning.

James Russo's life

Russo was born the son of immigrants, on June 16, 1922. His father James Don Russo arrived at Ellis Island from Sicily as a young man; his mother Cecelia F. McPhee Russo hailed from Dublin, Ireland.

Barry Russo reports that his dad built his own kayak as a teenager and would set out during high tide to dig for clams. He graduated from Milton High School in Massachusetts, and then earned an engineering degree from Northeastern University, where he was class vice president during both his junior and senior years.

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James enlisted in the Army Air Corps during the Second World War. But according to a 2011 newspaper article in Delaware’s Cape Gazette, Russo first signed up with the Navy Reserve.

Because of his engineering background, however, he was switched to the Air Corps, the forerunner of today’s United States Air Force. Russo worked in military research in Ohio during the war, helping to develop jet engines and a supersonic wind tunnel.

He was asked to reenlist and accept commission as an officer, but declined. However, he used to tell his kids he was a general during his time in the service, Barry says – “a general nuisance.”

An obituary provided by his family describes his sense of humor, gift for storytelling, and “resonating laugh” as some of Russo’s most memorable traits. He also had a genuine and empathetic interest in other people, according to his family, which fueled his very successful career in technical sales.

“We always joked that he could sell ice cubes to Eskimos,” Barry recalled.

His father always had a boat of some kind, he added, “from an 18-foot outboard cuddy cabin cruiser all the way up to a 40-foot Chris Craft, which we as a family would live on in the summer in various harbors in southern New England.”

He had a penchant for luxury automobiles as well, and typically would drive about 50,000 miles a year for business, Barry says. He eventually became president of Columbia Boiler Company.

Russo’s wife, Joey Ann, shared his adventurous spirit and they traveled extensively to Mexico, Bermuda, the Caribbean islands and throughout New England. They also lived in different parts of the country throughout their married life together.

Joey Ann passed away in 2010.

On Wednesday, Barry and his siblings James Alan Russo and Cindi Smith joined with other family members in Kittery at the Maine Sailors and Soldiers Memorial. The visit was originally set to take place on their dad’s 100th birthday last month, but had to be postponed when a couple of them tested positive for COVID.

“I think if I had to describe Dad in one word it would be optimistic,” Barry said prior to the visit. “He always sought out and found the good in things, even when others didn’t see it.”

How the monument became reality in Kittery

The bronze relief memorial features a woman protectively cradling an infant over the bodies of war dead. In the background surrounding them are images of soldiers, taking part in what was commonly referred to at the time as the Great War.

The monument has remained at this location for nearly a century. And naturally, because this is Kittery, its history includes a fair share of controversy.

Sculptor Bashka Paeff was 30 years old when she won a state-sponsored competition to create the memorial. In 1923, a committee of former servicemen helped her select a design.

A dedication ceremony took place in Kittery in November 1924, even though the project was not yet completed. The following year, newly elected Maine Gov. Ralph Brewster called a halt to work on the project.

Brewster accused his predecessor and political foe, former Gov. Percival Baxter, of using the memorial to glorify pacifism rather than honoring Maine’s role in the war. (Brewster, whose campaigns were openly supported by the Ku Klux Klan, would later become a close political ally of disgraced Sen. Joseph McCarthy. He was also portrayed as a rather slimy politician by Alan Alda in the Academy Award-winning film “The Aviator.”)

An interpretive marker currently located in the park (and sorely in need of replacement, but that’s another story), indicates Paeff proposed changes to make the memorial more acceptable to opponents. The proposed name of the sculpture – “Horrors of War” – was also removed.

“With its central figure of a woman holding a child, Paeff’s design represented a bold change from other war memorials that often featured soldiers and guns,” the panel declares.

The completed memorial was finally dedicated for good in May 1926, with about 2,000 people in attendance, including Baxter.

“For all time it will teach its lessons that war is a terrible curse, that manhood, womanhood, childhood all pay its awful price,” the former governor declared during the ceremony.

The bronze low-relief sculpture is framed by granite. Below the images is a line from a Rudyard Kipling poem: “Lord God of Hosts be with Us Yet, Lest We Forget, Lest We Forget."

The park itself was established to mark the location of where the famous sloop of war USS Ranger was built in 1777 for the great American Revolution naval hero John Paul Jones. The park was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in the mid-1920s.

Wednesday was the first time both brothers had seen the memorial, although sister Cindi had visited twice before. The weather was ideal and town employee Suzanne Esposito was on hand to welcome the family with commemorative lapel pins featuring Kittery's official seal.

"It couldn't have gone better," Barry said.

D. Allan Kerr would very much like to see the current weather-damaged historical markers at John Paul Jones Park replaced and updated.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Kittery: Family honors Maine Sailors and Soldiers Memorial baby model