
John Russell (Rusty) Hudelson

The song has ended, but the melody lingers on.
Obituary
John Russell (Rusty) Hudelson
May 2, 1945 – December 28, 2024 *Join us February 15, 2025, 2:00 - 4:00pm (see details below)
John Russell “Rusty” Hudelson passed from this world on Saturday, December 28th in Lubbock, TX at the age of 79 after a battle with leukemia.
Rusty is survived by his wife: Schahara Winter Hudelson of Levelland, TX; children: daughter Tania and Stuart Moody of Levelland, TX; daughter Darcy Hudelson Lewis of Springfield, MO; Bobby Lewis of Springfield, MO; grandchildren Sam Moody, Madison and Brent Partain, and Van Lewis; and great-grandchildren Hallie and Hayes Partain. He is also survived by sister: DeLoyce Patterson of McAlester, OK. He was dearly cherished by his nieces, nephews, cousins, in-laws, and many, many friends.
Rusty was born on May 2, 1945 in Pratte, KS to the late Kenneth Hudelson and Ruby Cole Hudelson. Rusty received a B.A. from Lubbock Christian University and proudly served America in the U.S. Army Reserves. After graduating high school in 1963 and completing his military commitment, Rusty married the love of his life, Schahara, in 1968 in Monterrey, Mexico. Their spontaneous elopement began a lifelong dedication to and abiding love for one another, played out through their myriad moves and travels, musical ambitions, church involvements, educational endeavors, and, most importantly, the building of their beloved family. Theirs was a “Love of the Century.”
Rusty was a lover of travel, geography, family history and genealogy, music, sports, sweet treats, and motorcycling. He was a deep thinker and had an impeccable memory for people and the past (though not for where he left his keys or phone). He never met a dog he wouldn’t pet. He was a consummate storyteller and engaging conversationalist, and he loved to make people laugh.
Rusty was an extraordinary musical talent. His remarkable gift was revealed at the early age of 2 when he began singing harmonies with his father and sister on the radio in McAlester, OK. Through his childhood, his incomparable skill for playing piano grew; after honing his talents in bands and solo work in the sixties and seventies, he began playing music with his wife, Schahara, and later his daughter, Tania, among many other musicians and bands, creating music that touched so many. The legacy of his gift lives on in the music he left behind.
After settling in West Texas, Rusty began his career at South Plains College where he taught piano, voice, and music theory. He retired having influenced many students who went on to their own successes and who considered him a beloved mentor and friend. While his talent was immense, Rusty will be most remembered for the deep love of his family and dear friends and the sweetness of his kind and tender spirit, but also his wry wit and mischievous sense of humor. He was loyal and protective to a fault, and his generosity of spirit was renowned. He would do anything for his family and those he held dear; he was infinitely proud of the accomplishments of his children and grandchildren, and he lit up when playing with his great-grandchildren in recent years.
He was the warm fire around which we all gathered. The depth of his absence cannot be measured. There was only one Rusty Hudelson.
A celebration of his life will be held on February 15 th in Levelland, TX. Please join the family in a time of telling stories and listening to the music of this great man. More details to follow.
The family would like to thank the staff at Joe Arrington Cancer Center and all the anonymous blood donors whose selfless contributions sustained his life past expectations. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating blood, plasma, and/or platelets (www.redcrossblood.org) and sign up to be a bone marrow donor (https://www.nmdp.org/get-involved/join-the-registry).
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Memory wall
Pappy poured everything he had into his family. He truly had a way of making you feel like the most important person in a room when you’d talk to him. He never interrupted, he listened patiently intently, and he gave heartfelt advice and left you feeling loved and heard.
As I’ve looked for things to cling onto to feel close to pappy since his passing, I’ve read his book, read letters written to him for his 70th birthday, listened to his music, and read through our old messages just to have a few more moments with him. And it made me realize just how tangible his absence truly is.
As Ive reminisced and mourn his loss, so many memories flood in and I’m reminded of how pappy, for me, has always been there. Im privileged to have countless memories of motorcycle rides once ending in a ticket for trying to fit him, Mumpy, Sam, and myself onto it at once in an attempt to pick us up from school.
Spontaneous phone calls with the request to pick me up to go get a treat, taking me to the store to pick out candy and with all the patience in the world, letting me take 30 minutes to pick out what I wanted. Sleepovers with bedtime stories about pookie, a character he had made up, and the smell of crispy bacon to wake you up in the mornings spent at their house.
I remember his truck always being stocked with sunflower seeds, which he taught me how to crack properly as I’d been eating them whole and those sleeves of gumballs. You could always count on pappy to have some candy on hand.
I remember the excitement I felt anytime I’d pull into the driveway of his and Mumpy’s house and I’d see him perched in his spot at his piano filling the house with music, or I’d see the back of his head through the window of the front room, his nose buried in his computer diving into google maps or Facebook, some of his simple joys, and when he would see you in his peripherals he’d easily abandon his playing or his searching and jump up to greet you with the biggest smile and that famous “heeey!” That I’ll miss dearly.
I remember our family trips to California, with pappys reckless driving through the short stop lights and hills of LA and the million U turns he made to snag a parking spot as he did one of his many schticks of bullying the navigation system, and scolding the drivers who weren’t up to his speed with “come on mamaw” or “go on now” something that always made me laugh.
We had many laughs on that trip together with Sam and Mumpy with our “star spotting” as we pointed out random people and misidentified them as celebrities.
I remember going to Hawaii and waking the beach one afternoon with him, just the two of us, soaking in the beauty and walking barefoot in the sand. Camping near the Grand Canyon with some old buddies of pappy’s hunting for arrowheads and sitting around the fire and enjoying nature.
He accompanied me to many volleyball tournaments, gave me driving lessons, helped me get my first car, hosted family game nights with delicious dinners, hot dog and marshmallow roasts and a hot tub soak filled with laughter and family harmonies.
He kept me updated with the family when I left for college, we frequently FaceTimed throughout my years as a stay at home mom, and he still showed up for every party, holiday, or gathering until his very last days. He was the glue that held us all together, something I know we will honor him by carrying on.
All this to say, pappy never forgot his loved ones. He always made time for you, and with Valentine’s Day just passing, I felt another sucker punch to the heart that reminded me of the weight of his absence because pappy has always been my valentine even after I was married and had one I could count on. If he were still here I would have had 2 Starbucks gift cards waiting in my inbox for me and for Hallie.
Now I know that when I approach that same window where a dining table now replaces the place I see pappy still in my mind playing his piano or getting his Facebook fix, it will always feel a little different.
When my sweet and beloved grandmother fills its doorway with her famous “get in here and hug my neck” there will now be a stinging silence that follows. Replacing the echoed and energetic “heeey!” Or hey sweetie and hug that had once harmoniously joined her greeting. But I will always be grateful for the memories I have of him in that window and standing in that doorway. And I’ll always remember that smiling face and the happiness behind it when he was with his people.
He was one of my best friends and I know his absence will be felt until we meet again. Thank you for showing me true love and thank you for being my friend. You are so loved and so dearly missed.
While I could and would love to share more memories involving the likes of motorcycle rides and ghost stories, I really want to relay how his natural gifting as well as his appreciation for good music inspired me probably more than anyone I’ve ever been around. The truth is, part of why I was inspired to get better was because I could tell that better music brought him “better” joy. He LOVED harmony, and my sister and I loved to wrap notes around his lead for a three part tune. Rusty was fun, respectful, and an encouraging teacher and friend. He was a huge supporter! I felt the love not only while at SPC, but throughout the years when we’d make a return visit to west Texas. My visits with Schahara and Rusty in their home post SPC college days are some wonderful memories! I’m grateful for who Rusty’s been to so many, and I want the Hudelson clan to know that I love and appreciate your family and how true it is for me that Rusty’s legacy and inspiration live on in my life.

Joy and the Spiritual-Natural Nature
What to say about John R. Hudelson, affectionately known in day-to-day life by family and friends as "Rusty?"
For me, how I felt about him is akin to having my first child. It was exciting, an anticipatory celebration of good things to come. a late night party of benign revelling for the future. The "first child" and the "first brother" share these feelings of anticipatory joy, although the first brother preceded long before my first child. For parents, subsequent children or a brother his three other brothers are not loved any less, only that the first one is something new and makes its mark on the spirit, its positive influence, and so, the history of a beneficial social relation begins.
What do I remember about Rusty? First, I have deep gratitude for him intermittently saving me from drowning in a sea of household estrogen, although without a doubt I absolutely adore my four sisters. It takes not much saving for any human being, only just enough influence to see, experience, and hold on to the promise of something new, especially when it aligns with who you are and what you are. Such is the thing of grace or an ecological limiting factor, that one trace mineral, plant, model, or grace in just enough amount to occur and thrive. Then, the limiting factor was a young male longing for male camaraderie. Now, that camaraderie is long past. I am only a father with grown children hoping for that promise. Rusty was one positive limiting factor in my life through the life course.
In my youth, I anxiously celebrated the intermittent anticipatory arrival of new birth every time Rusty and Schahara would visit our home in Ardmore, OK. He and I would play monopoly all night, a contest of who was more lucky and who could slyly cheat the best. What joy, this camaraderie of males!
Perhaps, it was a sacrifice for Rusty to stay up all night playing games with a kid. But I know that it was joy because I have never seen anyone in the conscious or spiritual moment as he was. Whatever it was he found to do, he was engaged. Maybe that is what joy is – staying conscious in the spiritual moment to celebrate all that moment has to offer. Rusty, I believe, had great capacity to experience joy.
Rusty and I, also in my youth, made prank phone calls, a mischievous society of males, breaking the rules for a good laugh. Or, placing objects in people's shopping carts to gauge their reaction at check-out. No real harm, this benign breaking the rules by a society of harmless naughty males. It is or was a male thing at one time to be a somewhat harmlessly naughty male. Without breaking faux norms imposed on the male self one is placed in a strait jacket of sociological narrative and/or religious misinterpretations imposed as truth. Here I am not referring to norms derived from nature because it is the only reliable measure of what one is as American culture obfuscates and terrorizes the nature of males, as well as women and mothers.
Rusty, as I witnessed, exhibited the spiritual-natural nature of faith, goodness, kindness, patience, peace, love, moderation, and self-control. Is it not the true nature of human nature – the spiritual-natural nature – in behavioral practice? Is the spiritual-natural nature not less a burden than practicing the cultural-natural nature? Although, we all practice the spiritual-natural nature unevenly at times, overall, Rusty practiced the spiritual-natural nature. If one is a spiritual-natural being, how can one do much less than practice what one is? Rusty's parents receive high marks for socializing Rusty into the spiritual-natural nature. Rusty did not turn away from that basic character.
Second, Rusty, for me, was a living hypothesis of a father; a statement of what is expected, that something observed not by chance. One word that comes to mind of Rusty's inner being is "servant." Through the years, wherever he and Schahara lived, I witnessed him integrating himself through service with the various groups he came in contact with, whether helping a rancher, aiding local organizations, social life and play, teaching students music, playing music, and related to church, ministering, preaching, teaching, and leading song services. He loved his kids, grandkids, and great grandkids. They were joy to him. I noticed the humble, longingful joy in his eyes and facial expression when any of his progeny were mentioned in his presence. The demeanor, if a question could be isolated and formulated from it, was: How can I help? What can I do?
Like a man, I noticed him tenderly and gently care for his wife early on and also more recently. The legacy of a man is not his shortcomings, as we all commit human error, but his character. Rusty and Schahara were partners, a real love story.
Rusty fought to live. God was merciful. He, I believe, did the possible through prayer and spirit. Rusty saw one more Christmas, and more importantly, no doubt, felt one last great joy. I am told he held his new great grand son Hayes in his arms, and, like with me so many years ago, but to a greater degree his own flesh and blood that lives on, he had his joy, which contagious joy influences for the better the life it touches.
I'm gonna miss you Rusty, my dear sweet brother!
The Good Lord blessed Rusty with a rare musical gift that would be used to further bless the lives of countless people over the years.
We will always remember his excellent sense of humor and quick wit. I still laugh today at some of the things he said or jokes he would pull on those Caravan trips. He was always able to lighten the most serious of circumstances with a smirk and a quick laugh.
A more inspiring person/teacher does not come to mind when thinking of our college years. Our lives are richer for knowing him.
Prayers for all of the family. God Speed Rusty! We will see you soon enough!
As one of the 3 amigo brother-in-laws, Rusty, Doug and myself, I can't imagine a more loving, funny, and caring brother-in-law than my "brother from another mother," John Russell Hudelson.

Not only did I have the privilege of having Rusty back me up countless times at the Cactus Theater as a kid, my college experience at SPC has Rusty written all over it. Country Jukebox was never a toss up of auditioning for because of Professor Rusty. The many talks in his office about life, music, plans for the future….a great debt I get to repay by opening my door to the office at NMJC everyday for my students. I met my wife Kristi in Rusty’s class. ❤️ My heart goes out to Schahara, Tania, and all family that will feel this 2024 come to a bittersweet close. One story……
In April of this year, Dad #2 Don Caldwell hired my program from NMJC Entertainment & Music Technology to run sound/lighting production for an event at the Overton. Not only was this the last ever phone call I got to have with Don with a “post gig” recap, but Rusty was hired as a pianist to play during the cocktail hour. I was so surprised to see Rusty walk in as it had been a couple years since we saw each other. No one was coming in the banquet room as Rusty started playing, and the wait staff were bringing food out. After Rusty’s time had expired, he came to collect a check and we had the greatest laugh finding out that the venue forgot to tell us that we were supposed to set him up IN THE FOYER where the people were. A miscommunication turned into a laughable moment. Embrace, and goodbye/see ya again.
I thank you Rusty for our friendship and your mentorship. My promise to you, is to continue the legacy of mentoring and nurturing the next generation of students that now come in my office for those “talks”.
“Everything's cool. Besides, the sky belongs to the stars, right?” - Marshall Crenshaw

Just like his daddy (great uncle Kenneth to me) the love of Jesus shone so very gently yet so brightly through his eyes and his life. I was looking for a Bible verse that includes gentle, humble, strong, to describe Rusty and landed on Galatians 5:22-23. The fruit of the Holy Spirit was bountiful in his life! Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control couldn't describe Rusty better in my eyes.
Rusty was rehearsing an ensemble (Saturday Night Special? Country JukeBox?) the first time I stepped foot inside the Tom T. Hall at SPC. The visit was a prelude to figure out a transition plan from active duty Marine Corps to enrolling as an SPC college student the following fall. It was a first and memorable impression to the kind of talent, class and everything good about the caliber of musician, mentor and friend Rusty Hudelson exemplified by example to everyone he came in contact with both, on and off the stage.
I can still see Rusty wearing his Oklahoma Sooners ball cap teaching a class, telling a quick joke and-or story relating to the subject matter. In addition, I can still hear “The Living Jukebox” in my head, an act he had with guitar, legend John Hartin and ever faithful Schahara Hudelson close by, at the Mean Woman Grill or out at the Salt Lick at Cagles Steaks.
Rusty always had that quiet professional mentality and reminded me of a lot of collegiate wrestling athletes and coaches i came into contact with years before, who were giants and masters of their craft but never let on with it. He just went out there and did what needed to be done. Nonetheless, he had a way of putting you at ease so you could learn, develop, and excel at what you were trying to get accomplished individually and as part of a group.
Recollecting Rusty, once during an SPC vocal jury at the end of a semester, I was doing my best to extend into falsetto in my head voice range, and he could tell I was not all that comfortable with, as a baritone.
He told me, “ Matt, it isnt an easy thing to sing like a girl, is it?”
As, funny as that may sound, that still remains true to this day….It is not, nor is it easy for a alto or soprano to sing like a baritone, but if I had to start, I might ask Terri Clark on that one and Rusty might agree.
Rusty retired a few years after I first enrolled at SPC and I remembered how enthused he was and how much he looked forward to hitting the road on the motorcycle to travel with Scahara in retirement. I would like to imagine he is probably still out there riding the wind somewhere, still playing keys and harmonizing, maybe riding along side, Gene Autry or Roy Rogers. They would be in very good company if that’s true.
All poetry aside , what I know is true, Rusty was a great and faithful servant to The Almighty, to Christ The Messiah.
God Bless Rusty Hudelson. Good ride cowboy!
God Speed & Semper Fi,
Matt Bowlin



Just about every time I came to Lubbock or Levelland to perform, he and Schahara were there to support me. The most recent time, however, sticks out the most in my mind. SPC named me a “Distinguished Alumni” in November 2023… I was honored to have them both at my table. It was so good just to chat with him about old times and future plans. It was like no time has passed since our student/teacher days.
I will miss him, but I am so grateful to the good Lord that he allowed him to be part of my life. Rest in peace, my friend…
