Lester “Deke” Russell is a man of words, so when asked about his fondest desire, the 70-year-old announced that he wanted to take a tour of a big bookstore, and learn about new advances in media.

It should not have been a surprise to those who know Russell. He owned and operated Deke’s Bookstore in Oregon City for 20 years.

Responding to Russell’s wish, Kerri Fiero, one of the activity directors at Marquis Care in Oregon City, where Russell lives, called Barnes & Noble Booksellers at Clackamas Town Center. The folks there decided to make a party of the event.

“Of course we want to do this; this is one way of getting out into the community and doing something nice,” said Page Jordan, community relations manager at the bookstore.

Jordan set up a meet-and-greet with refreshments and decorations on July 24 in a reserved section of the store’s café, and then all the people that Russell invited began showing up.

About 30 former classmates from West Linn High School, former customers, friends and Marquis employees swarmed around Russell, snapping photos and swapping stories.

Then classmates wheeled Russell to the front of the store, where Katie Stone, a Nook seller at Barnes & Noble, gave him a tutorial on the device; shortly after that, his guests surprised Russell by giving him a Nook of his own.

Jordan gave Russell a $25 gift certificate, so he could pick out his own book, and a gift bag with “Gone With The Wind” pictured on it.

When she asked him if he’d ever read the novel, he announced, “I sold it!”

New Chapter

Marquis Care has a program called New Chapter, noted Laurie Crawford, an activity director at the facility.

New Chapter is like Make A Wish, and anytime employees at Marquis Care hear residents say they want to do something, they try to make it happen, she said.

“It is like a new chapter in life for older people and it brings vitality into the building. Lester will talk about this forever,” she said, describing Russell as “amazing.”

Russell graduated from West Linn High School in 1959, and his fellow classmates and other friends were more than happy to share “Lester stories” at the gathering at Barnes & Noble.

“I’ve known him for more than 50 years; he has such a keen mind and he’s very intelligent,” said Gloria (Planton) Sizemore.

They were neighbors and played together as children, she said, but one day when they were both 10 her mother told her she could not talk to Russell, because he had the chicken pox.

“So we talked over the fence, and then I got the chicken pox,” she noted, with a laugh.

Another fellow West Linn High School graduate, Amy (Leete) Keeth, said that she and Russell were born in the same hospital, two days apart, and their mothers shared a room.

“I didn’t know this until the first day of high school, and Lester was there waiting for me. He told me about it and I went home and checked with my mom,” she said.

Jay Bettineski attended the party with a cherished paperback book in hand. He sat next to Russell and showed him the book, “The Beasts of Tarzan,” and said that Russell sold it to him in 1964.

“Back then I worked at the Oregon City Library as a child, and I’d go into the bookstore and tell him what books I wanted, and he’d go into Portland and find them for me,” Bettineski said.

Deke’s Bookstore

Longtime residents of Oregon City may remember Deke’s Bookstore, which Russell ran from 1963 to 1984. It was first at Seventh and Center, then moved one block, across from the fire station, and then finally to another location in downtown Oregon City.

When he graduated from high school in 1959, Russell tried to find a job, tried college for a year or so, and then asked his father what he should do.

“Robert Cameron, who owned Cameron’s Books in Portland, was a college classmate of my father’s, and he helped me set up the bookstore,” Russell said.

He called it Deke’s, to honor his nickname.

“My granddad was a Methodist minister, and my dad was a minister,” Russell said. “Deke was an offshoot of ‘deacon.’ ”

One of his earliest memories in the store came in November 1963, when the lady who owned the doughnut shop next door came in to tell him that President John F. Kennedy had been shot.

Tom Snethen, a guest at the party, vividly remembers Deke’s Bookstore, which he said was stocked with bags of books, some of which sold for only 10 cents or 25 cents.

In the early days, “if he made $3 or $4, it was a big deal,” he said.

Snethen was married to Russell’s sister, Meagan, who died in 1996.

“He had an inventory of 10,000 books, and he could tell you where every one was,” Snethen said.

Russell made a go of the bookstore, Snethen said, partly because he offered such good customer service.

“He would take Thursdays off, and go to Portland on the bus, with his customer list,” to fill special requests, he noted.

In 1984, Russell fell in the bookstore, when a ladder broke as he was restocking “National Geographic” magazines. He broke his hip, and his father decided that due to other complications from medical problems, it was time to close the shop.

In his biography for his 50th high school reunion, Russell said that the 20 years he ran Deke’s Bookstore were the best years of his life.

Keep reading books

Lester Frederick “Deke” Russell Jr. was born in Oregon City on Oct. 17, 1941. His mother, Mary, quickly realized that something was amiss.

“I was born with epilepsy, which was controlled. But at age 2, I got polio in my left foot, so my left leg was shorter. I have had various operations, and started high school late because I was in the Shriners Hospital having an operation,” Russell said.

About 20 years after he broke his hip in the bookstore, Russell fell again and broke his pelvis on the other side, and is confined to a wheelchair. He had been living on his own until then, but after the second break he lived in two foster homes before finally settling two years ago at Marquis Care center.

His earliest memory about books is when he was about 3, and his favorite book was “Bounce and the Bunnies.”

“My mother would read it over and over to me, and if she skipped a page, I knew it,” he said.

Russell still reads, of course, and is learning to use his new Nook, for both reading and email. He considers himself a “history nut,” with a special interest in books about the Civil War.

People should keep reading books, he said, because it is one way to kill time, but also is very educational.