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==Legislative record==​

==Legislative record==​

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In addition to his open meetings and beaches legislation, Cummings procured the passage of legislation to allow public school districts to provide taxpayer-funded kindergartens. He fell short in his attempt to provide a life sentence without parole for certain violent crimes committed with a firearm.<ref name=chron/> Cummings obtained passage of a bill supported by the [[interest group]], the Texas Nurses Association, which formalized professional practices. He obtained the first "work release" program that authorized non-violent criminals to work outdoors, a measured supported by the Texas Fish Farmers Association. Cummings served on the House Appropriation, Parks and Wildlife, Transportation, House Administration, and Penitentiary committees. He was vice chairman of the Public Education Committee. His legislative tenure corresponded with the first two terms of [[Governor]] [[John Connally]].<ref name="obit">{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/statesman/Obituaries.asp?Page=Notice&PersonID=107966357|title=Russell Bennett Cummings|publisher=''The Austin American-Statesman''accessdate=March 19 2009}}</ref>​

In addition to his open meetings and beaches legislation, Cummings procured the passage of legislation to allow public school districts to provide taxpayer-funded kindergartens. He fell short in his attempt to provide a life sentence without parole for certain violent crimes committed with a firearm. Cummings obtained passage of a bill supported by the [[interest group]], the Texas Nurses Association, which formalized professional practices. He obtained the first "work release" program that authorized non-violent criminals to work outdoors, a measured supported by the Texas Fish Farmers Association. Cummings served on the House Appropriation, Parks and Wildlife, Transportation, House Administration, and Penitentiary committees. He was vice chairman of the Public Education Committee. His legislative tenure corresponded with the first two terms of [[Governor]] [[John Connally]].<ref name="obit">{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/statesman/Obituaries.asp?Page=Notice&PersonID=107966357|title=Russell Bennett Cummings|publisher=''The Austin American-Statesman''accessdate=March 19 2009}}</ref>​

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==Early years, family, education, military==​

==Background==​

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Cummings was born in the previous Methodist Hospital in Houston to Glen Souter Cummings and the former Florella Vera. He was descended from William Cummings, one of the three hundred families originally settled in Texas by [[Stephen F. Austin]]. His mother was a member of the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]]. Cummings attended Woodrow Wilson Elementary and Sidney Lanier Middle schools and graduated at the age of sixteen in 1942 from Mirabeau B. Lamar High School  in Houston. Cummings then attended the since defunct Lon Morris College,  a [[Methodist]]-affiliated junior college in Jacksonville in east Texas for the spring semester of 1943. He and an older brother, Glenn Malcolm Cummings, thereafter joined the [[United States Merchant Marine]] Cadet Corps. Cummings recalled having marched down [[Canal Street]] in [[New Orleans]] during the Armistice Day parade on November 11, 1943. In New Orleans just after Christmas 1943, Cummings boarded his first ship, the ''S.S. Delmar'', built at Hog Island, [[Pennsylvania]]. In 1945, he graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point on [[Long Island]], [[New York]], having procured a license to sail as an officer on any merchant ship in any ocean and a commission as an ensign in the United States Naval Reserve.<ref name=obit/>​

Cummings was born in the previous Methodist Hospital in Houston to Glen Souter Cummings and the former Florella Vera. He was descended from William Cummings, one of the three hundred families originally settled in Texas by [[Stephen F. Austin]]. His mother was a member of the [[Daughters of the American Revolution]]. Cummings attended Woodrow Wilson Elementary and Sidney Lanier Middle schools and graduated at the age of sixteen in 1942 from Mirabeau B. Lamar High School  in Houston. Cummings then attended the since defunct Lon Morris College,  a [[Methodist]]-affiliated junior college in Jacksonville in east Texas for the spring semester of 1943. He and an older brother, Glenn Malcolm Cummings, thereafter joined the [[United States Merchant Marine]] Cadet Corps. Cummings recalled having marched down [[Canal Street]] in [[New Orleans]] during the Armistice Day parade on November 11, 1943. In New Orleans just after Christmas 1943, Cummings boarded his first ship, the ''S.S. Delmar'', built at Hog Island, [[Pennsylvania]]. In 1945, he graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point on [[Long Island]], [[New York]], having procured a license to sail as an officer on any merchant ship in any ocean and a commission as an ensign in the United States Naval Reserve.<ref name=obit/>​

After the war, Cummings attended the [[University of Texas at Austin]] and the University of Houston and accumulated enough semester hours to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in transportation. On June 25, 1949, at the First Methodist Church of Houston, Cummings married the former Dorothy Hensley, a native of Newnan, [[Georgia]]), and a receptionist and switchboard operator. The couple had two children, David Malcolm Cummings (born 1950) and Karen Ann Cummings Garrett (born 1952), and two grandsons, Russell Bennett Lang and Carl Thompson Norwood.<ref name=obit/>​

After the war, Cummings attended the [[University of Texas at Austin]] and the University of Houston and accumulated enough semester hours to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in transportation. On June 25, 1949, at the First Methodist Church of Houston, Cummings married the former Dorothy Hensley, a native of Newnan, [[Georgia]]), and a receptionist and switchboard operator. The couple had two children, David Malcolm Cummings (born 1950) and Karen Ann Cummings Garrett (born 1952), and two grandsons, Russell Bennett Lang and Carl Thompson Norwood.<ref name=obit/>​

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==Jaycees president==​

==Jaycees president==

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Cummings joined the Houston Jaycees and in 1960 was elected president of the chapter. Thereafter, he was appointed chairman of the Jaycees Americanism Committee, which sponsored the first "Old Fashion Fourth of July Celebration" was held at Hermann Park in Houston, with a fireworks show, military band, patriotic speaker, and American flags. The Jaycees expected possibly 1,500 people, but 35,000 appeared and created what Cummings remembered as "a terrific traffic jam."<ref name=obit/> He was thereafter appointed a director of the full Houston [[Chamber of Commerce]] and of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, then called the "Fat Stock" Show. In 1963, the Jaycees named Cummings "Outstanding Public Official" in Harris County.<ref name=obit/>​

Cummings joined the Houston Jaycees and in 1960 was elected president of the chapter. Thereafter, he was appointed chairman of the Jaycees Americanism Committee, which sponsored the first "Old Fashion Fourth of July Celebration" was held at Hermann Park in Houston, with a fireworks show, military band, patriotic speaker, and American flags. The Jaycees expected possibly 1,500 people, but 35,000 appeared and created what Cummings remembered as "a terrific traffic jam."<ref name=obit/> He was thereafter appointed a director of the full Houston [[Chamber of Commerce]] and of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, then called the "Fat Stock" Show. In 1963, the Jaycees named Cummings "Outstanding Public Official" in Harris County.<ref name=obit/>​