Art dealer Laura Russo died of cancer last Thursday; a memorial service will be held today at the Portland Art Museum's Sunken Ballroom.

DK Row has more on Russo's contributions to the Portland art scene in the Oregonian:

Simply put: No one in the current art world championed local and Northwest artists as passionately and consistently as Russo, whose 23 year-old gallery is a de facto museum for regional artists, past and present: Lucinda Parker, Jay Backstrand, Fay Jones, and the estates of Louis Bunce, Robert Colescott, Carl Morris and her uncle, Michele Russo, among others, are represented by the Russo business.

But Russo was more than the seemingly shy yet quietly tough art dealer on Northwest 21st Avenue. She was an embodiment of a specific mid-century lineage whose spirit and heritage continues but whose active champions are now few.

"We will never see this kind of lifelong commitment again," says Bruce Guenther, a longtime Russo friend and chief curator at the Portland Art Museum. "Laura was literally raised in this town. Her knowledge of the history of the cultural scene here, and her connections — social and personal — with the artists of this city can't be matched."