Jane Russel (News-Item): Jane Russel died today March 01, 2011 in Santa Maria, CA. few months before her 90th birthday. She was the voluptuous pin-up girl who set a million male hearts to pounding during World War II, the favorite movie star of a generation of young men long before she'd made a movie more than a handful of them had ever seen. Such was the stunning beauty of Jane Russell, and the marketing skills of the man who discovered her, the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes. Russell, surrounded by family members, died Monday at her home. Her death from respiratory failure came 70 years after Hughes had put her on the path to stardom with his controversial Western "The Outlaw." Although she had all but abandoned Hollywood after the 1960s for a quieter life, her daughter-in-law Etta Waterfield said Russell remained active until just a few weeks ago when her health began to fail. Until then she was active with her church, charities that were close to her heart and as a member of a singing group that made occasional appearances around Santa Maria. "She always said I'm going to die in the saddle, I'm not going to sitay at home and become an old woman'