Anna Luci

Anna (Ann) Marie Luci was born September 12th, 1939, to Andreas and Anna Zinsmeister in the small Bavarian town of Scheuring, Germany. The youngest of eight brothers and sisters, her earliest memories were of working her family’s small farm and grain mill in the post-World War II reconstruction. While working in a doctor’s office in Augsburg, she was set up on a double blind date with the man she would eventually marry, Niman Karman Luci. Niman was considered a foreign national serving as a soldier in the US Army earning citizenship under the terms of The Lodge Act. Soon after their marriage, she gave birth to Sammy (1961) and Steve (1962) in an Army hospital in Augsburg.

Niman was shipped stateside to serve at Fort Riley, Kansas, and Ann followed, her two toddlers in tow, alone on a military transport a few months later. The four of them were naturalized as US citizens when Niman’s first term of service was complete. After arriving, Ann set upon the task of teaching herself to speak English as there was only one other German-speaking person she knew on base, and that accomplishment became a source of great personal pride. After Niman reenlisted, Ann gave birth to Janet in 1965 in the Irwin Army Hospital.

Later that same year, Niman was deployed to Vietnam where he was severely wounded and evacuated to Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado. Ann was informed by the casualty officer that after his recovery, Niman would be discharged, so she packed up their belongings and drove with their three toddlers from meager base housing in Kansas to Aurora, where she found and rented a home close to the hospital, all while Niman was kept sedated due to the severity of his injury. After a time recovering, Niman was released from the hospital, and the two began their civilian lives, each working multiple jobs to keep their family fed while saving enough money to buy their first home in 1968 and putting their children through Catholic school, which Anna insisted would help guarantee their future success.

In 1972, Anna gave birth to Jeffrey in Fitzsimons Hospital. Seeing the need to find a better place to live for their growing family, Ann and Niman used a VA benefit to help pay the down payment for a brand-new home to be built in Aurora in 1977. There, they finished raising their children and eventually retired in 1993.

Anna’s later years were spent enjoying time with her grandchildren which proved to be her greatest joy. Indeed, some of her last words were spoken straining and with significant effort due to illness in praise of the grades on one of their report cards. Ann was a strong, fiercely defiant woman who was unwilling to compromise anything when it came to her family. Anyone who knew her quickly learned that no one and nothing came between her and what she thought was necessary to secure their safety, success, and happiness. She willingly and eagerly sacrificed her personal wants for them all on a daily basis. Her four children and seven grandchildren will continue to reap the rewards for her unimaginably hard work for years and generations to come.

Ann truly embodied the American dream and achieved the kind of goals that give one’s life the meaning and substance that can never be fully acknowledged with words on a page. She passed peacefully on August 27th, 2022. She was preceded in death by her husband, Niman (2017) and all her siblings, including Paula who passed six months to the day prior. She is survived by her children, Sammy (Debora), Steve (Theresa), Janet (Jeff), and Jeffrey (Kimberly), and her seven grandchildren, Sara, Nicholas, Barrett, Benjamin, Matthew, Emma, and Douglas.

Catholic services for Anna Luci will be held at Horan & McConaty located at 11150 E. Dartmouth Avenue at S. Parker Road on September 20, 2022, at 11:30 a.m., followed by a reception at the mortuary. A private family interment service will follow at Fort Logan National Cemetery where Ann will rejoin her husband.