 In New York in the summer of 1971, Russell was one of the inaugural members of the US–China Peoples Friendship Association (USCPFA), and revisited the country in 1972.She was diagnosed with lung cancer in early summer 1989 and died at her home in New York on November 8, 1989 at the age of 96.After her death, she was described as a "truly remarkable person", who "led an extraordinary life of social and political activism".