Russell Edwards, 82, an Ex-Editor Of Society of The New York Times

By Anne Marie Schiro
Aug. 30, 1991

Credit…The New York Times Archives
See the article in its original context from
August 30, 1991, Section D, Page 20

Russell Edwards, a former society editor of The New York Times, died on Wednesday at the Grand Islander Health Center in Middletown, R.I., where he had lived for six years. He was 82 and had lived in Newport, R.I., since he retired in 1976.

He died of a ruptured aneurism, said his stepdaughter, Alison Hamilton.

Mr. Edwards’s first job at The Times was in the newspaper’s clipping files, where he became interested in family trees. He later became a copy editor and was named society editor in 1954. It was during Mr. Edwards’s tenure that The Times ran its first picture of a black bride on the society page.

In 1957, he oversaw a series on changes in society in major American cities. His own contribution, a full-page article on New York City, chronicled the evolution of society from the days of Mrs. William Astor’s exclusive Four Hundred to the emergence of a glittering international set that included industrialists and movie stars. He noted the demise of large-scale entertaining at home, the disappearance of the stately mansions, and a trend to informality.

“Russell Edwards was probably as knowledgeable about the ins and outs of New York society as anybody in the country,” Clifton Daniel, a managing editor and associate editor of The Times in the 1960’s and 70’s, said yesterday. “At the same time he was not a gossip writer. He maintained a very high standard.”
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Career
Member of staff, New York Times, 1929-1976; assistant head desk, then head desk obituary, culture, society sect, New York Times, 1939-1954; society editor, New York Times, 1954-1976.

Achievements
Russell Edwards has been listed as a noteworthy Newspaper editor by Marquis Who’s Who.

Membership
Member Andrew’s Society, Silurians {New York City}.
Source: https://prabook.com/web/russell.edwards/1674667