In the fall of 1973 the Glenmary Home Missioners and American society of priests, brothers, and sisters, sent Father Bob Cameron to Franklin County to establish a Catholic Church in Russellville. On November 4, 1973, seventeen Catholics gathered around a small table in the home of William and Hattie Manceauz to celebrate the Eucharist with Father Cameron. This momentous mass marked the birth of Good Shepherd Catholic Church. Two weeks later the First United Methodist Church generously offered us the use of a basement chapel for Sunday mass. This became our home for ten years. 

Within two months of the first mass, a parish council was formed and a religious education program organized. A house was rented to serve as a rectory. The small Catholic community, full of hope and faith, was further affirmed and encouraged when Bishop Joseph G. Vath designated and anonymous gift of nearly 50,000.00 to be used for a future church structure.

IN the fall of 1975 Father Cameron received a new assignment, leaving the area. The parish welcomed Father Bob Valenza. Father Valenza guided the church to an important decision: the purchase of six and a half acres which one day would be the site for the present church. At the same time Father Valenza was associate pastor of Holy Spirit Church in Winfield. Holy Spirit parish included the new church group in Russellville. The pastor of Winfield/Russellville, Father Patrick Breheny, encouraged the planning of a multi-purpose building in Russellville. 

When Russellville and all of Franklin County were named by the Bishop of Birmingham as a parish distinct from Winfield, Father Bob Hare was appointed pastor. With the help of a building committee assisted by Lamber-Ezell, architects, planes were drawn for the building which would serve as a place of worship, a parish hall, and a religious education center. Plans came to fruition under the leadership of Father Hare, who, on a windy Palm Sunday, 1983, celebrated the first mass on the present church grounds. In 1985 a rectory was added on the same property. 

Father Bob Berson was appointed pastor in 186. With parish numbers increasing slowly but steadily, he set up a new building committee and in 1987 initiated a building fund to prepare for the construction of additional religious education classrooms and a church. The classrooms were completed in 1991.

The building committee was chaired by Miles Owen and included Mary Bowling, Kevin Kelly, Conrad Castillo, Anna Maria Santos. With the assistance of architect Donald Parker, they developed plans for the church. Glenmary Brother Larry Jochim arrived in April 1992 to manage the project. With some help from the men and women of the parish, and contracted services of many tradesmen, Brother Larry completed the construction of the church in May 1994.

Because of Brother Larry's careful management and personal contribution of hundreds of hours of labor, the cost of the project was kept down. Eighty-seven percent of the needed funds was raised locally between 1987 and 1994. The remaining thirteen percent was provided by the Catholic Church Extension Society and gifts from generous donors who love beyond Franklin County. 

- Josie Dugan