John La Russa has worn so many hats it's hard to peg down an accurate end to the sentence 'John La Russa is...'
But whether he was riding a motorcycle, cooking for 10 children or studying the Gospel, 81-year-old La Russa's sense of humor and passion for life and learning helped carry him through all these different phases to the present - where he sits, joking with his wife, Gloria, and one of his daughters in his Magnolia living room.
"He's known for his sense of humor in the Village," said Monica Wooton, La Russa's oldest daughter and president of the Magnolia Historical Society. "He loves a good joke and loves to play jokes on people."
Though La Russa suffers from crippling arthritis, he spends most mornings trekking into the Village for his morning coffee. "I crawl into Tully's every morning," La Russa jokes.
Long before coffee at Tully's became a morning ritual, La Russa grew up in the Garlic Gulch of Rainier Valley and shortly after graduating from Franklin High School, La Russa started his own business, Benla Service Co. which still operates in Interbay.
But owning his own business wasn't quite as profitable as La Russa had imagined, so he became a part-time taxi driver, which came naturally to La Russa - a natural talker and people person. At this job, "I really got a love for all people," La Russa said.
A few years later in 1951 La Russa married, which was followed by the growth of his family. That year was also the start of La Russa's dedication to the Catholic Church, which turned into a lifelong vocation, when he became a founding member of Our Lady of Fatima parish. As La Russa said, his wife wanted to marry a practicing Catholic so he needed to learn but then La Russa found himself wanting to learn more and more.
La Russa became a "pioneer parishioner" - focusing on social issues and helping anyone and everyone he could - when the Catholic Church was undergoing many changes, including the transformations that came with Vatican II. Vatican II - the first ecumenical council, which was opened by Pope John XXII in 1962 - was meant to in some respects modernize the church by making its teachings more accessible to the lay people, including giving Mass in the vernacular language instead of Latin and expanding the interpretation of the Gospel to more than a purely literal meaning.
Vatican II also created tension within church between the conservative and progressive Catholics, and La Russa fell on the more progressive end of the spectrum.
And with his statutes set, La Russa became a deacon in 1977 under the Archdiocese of Seattle, as well as a Judge on the Second Tribunal on which he still presides. As a Deacon, La Russa was also given the unique role of being the parish director first of Our Lady of Guadalupe and then at Assumption Catholic Church when no priest was available to be pastor.
But it would be not be all-inclusive to restrict La Russa's roles to the church and his faith. He also enjoyed skiing and served as a member of the Snoqualmie Ski Patrol for many years, and speaks proudly of the silver star he received for saving a woman's life by administering CPR.
Now, while it's difficult to keep track of everything he's done, La Russa still keeps track of his large family, which now includes 20 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. That quite possibly makes the La Russas one of the largest families to come from Magnolia and stay in Magnolia. And La Russa and his wife continue to attend mass at Our Lady of Fatima every Sunday.[[In-content Ad]]
