Lucille Danese Rich

Lucille Danese Rich would have celebrated 107 years on December 26, 2020. She was born on a dairy farm in Loretto, Florida, a suburb of South Jacksonville and worked on the dairy to help with chores. She had 11 brothers and sisters and has outlived all but one sibling. She set a record in being the oldest member of her very large family. The Danese family was one of the founding families of the Loretto area of Mandarin. They built the Catholic Church there (St. Joseph’s) and the school house. To get to high school every day, she had to get up at 4:30, head to school as her father drove her in their Model T truck from Loreto to the south bank of the St Johns River (there were no bridges at the time), cross the river on a ferry, take a street car to the school for 6:30 am classes. After she reversed the trip to head home, she had to help drive the cows back to the barn for their evening milking. Consequently, she was an early riser all of her life and to bed by 8 pm sharp. The Danese family name is very well known throughout the Mandarin area. She is the first of her family to have completed a college degree.

After graduating from high school at St. Joseph’s Academy on Seventh & Market Streets during the Great Depression, which no longer exists because of a fire, Lucille planned on being a nurse and had applied at St. Vincent’s Hospital, but enrollment was filled and her application was referred to Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. But because Pensacola was so far from home and her close family, Lucille was afraid she would get homesick and thus she decided against nurses training. She became instead a receptionist for Eppinger & Russell, a creosoting plant on Talleyrand Avenue, which no longer exists. By this time, the family had moved into South Jacksonville from the dairy farm and today there is a court named after the family where they lived on Old St. Augustine Road.

About that time she met her future husband, Carl James Rich, at Jacksonville Beach, a most handsome and lively, likeable guy, and they were married in 1938. They had 4 children, one of whom died at childbirth. After raising her family, she decided to return to work with a kindergarten and daycare in her home. As she ran her kindergarten during the day, she started taking night time college courses in Early Education, and graduated with the first college degree in her family. Her brother, Emanuel soon followed with his own college degree in real Estate, and later her sister, a Sister of St. Joseph, completed her PhD in College Administration.

An interesting sidelight is that when her mother died, all the siblings decided they had better check on their social security situation. Imagine her surprise when, after a lot of digging through census records, etc., she found she was named “Maria Lucia Danese” and not “Mary Lucille Danese.” She also found out she was born in 1913 and not 1914. Carl had a lot of fun with that, telling her they were not even married because it was under false pretenses claiming he had married Mary Lucille – not Maria Lucia and that she was a lot older than he thought! Carl died in August, 1968 of a massive heart attack. She never considered remarrying.

Lucille set a good example in whatever she did. Lucille had her own day care and kindergarten, and then taught at St. Paul’s elementary school at Jacksonville Beach, became first a teacher and then principal of Blessed Trinity Catholic grade school, and finally a second grade teacher at Christ the King in Arlington wher she was laid off due to low enrollment.

After the Catholic school system, she took a test and was accepted by the State of Florida EPA in the Potable Water Section. Once she hit 80 years old, she decided that was long enough to work and thus officially and finally retired. At retirement, she learned that she was the second oldest employee of the entire Florida State system. Since retirement, Lucille enjoyed traveling, visiting family and friends, catching her favorite television shows, and going to church. Upon retirement, she sold her home on Ridgewood Road and moved into a condo in South Jacksonville. This enabled her to be free from cutting grass to take several cruises to the Caribbean (St. Thomas, Cayman Islands, Bahamas, etc.), take a tour to Ireland, and another to Hawaii, motor trips to the St. Patrick’s parade in Savannah, and to Charleston, SC. She also visited Joan & Charlie in Antigua and Grand Turk in the British West Indies, and traveled back and forth to Atlanta and LaGrange, GA and Foley (Gulf Shores), Alabama). After 9/11 she refused to fly again.

In June, 2012 at age 98, Lucille had a complete hip and knee replacement in Atlanta which was very hard on her. It took her a lot longer to recuperate than thought and she ended up in a rehabilitation center for two months after breaking her femur which required yet a third operation to repair the leg with pins and rods. But, Lucille was pretty stubborn (she claimed determined), and, whereas most people suffering from such a hard recovery would have given up and stayed in the rehab center to be taken care of, she was determined to get out of there. And two months to the day that she entered the rehab nursing home, she walked out – slowly and with her walker, but walk she did. No one should be surprised because Lucille used to walk in senior citizens’ marathons and came in second place during several of them. She kept to her physical therapy schedule and eventually walked as exercise around her condo pool ten times, three times a week, even at 106.

She left behind 3 children: Joan Rich Zoranski (Charlie, dec.) (Welaka, FL), Sharon Rich Christmas (Troye) (Jacksonville, FL), and Larry Rich (Sue) (Foley, AL); 4 grandchildren: KayBeth Thomas (Greg); Greg Johns (Celina); Jimmy Rich (Dorothy), and Shelby Rich Jurkiervicz (Charles); 5 Great grand children: Sharon Eileen Thomas Piltz (Ben); Christopher Johns, Michael Johns, Brendan Johns (Angie), Taylor Johns; 6 Great Great Grandchildren: Braelyn Johns, Owen Johns, Scottlynn Johns; Christopher Rich, M.D., Candler Rich, and Andrew Rich; 2 Great Great Great Grandchildren: Rosie Rich, Weston Rich.

So, with this reminder of her accomplishments (outside of merely living to the age of 106+ years), this was Lucille Danese Rich. A hard act to follow but one that will be missed by everyone she encountered.

A funeral Mass will be held in honor of Lucille on Thursday, July 9, 2020 at Assumption Catholic Church, 2403 Atlantic Blvd, Jacksonville, FL 32207 beginning with a visitation at 10:00 AM prior to the Mass at 11:00 AM. Interment will follow at Chapel Hills Memory Gardens, 850 St. John’s Bluff Road North, Jacksonville, Florida 32225. Hardage-Giddens Chapel Hills Funeral Home is proud to serve the family.