Lucille Laverne Luedke

Born a coal miner's daughter May 11, 1924, Lucille Laverne Freeman lived in the small mining town of Farmington, West Virginia with her father Aubrey, mother Ella, older brother Aulda, older sister Mildred (Freeland), older sister Louise (Dawson) and younger brother Harold. Survived by her kid brother, Harold fondly remembers pitching horseshoes with Lucille in the backyard where he once accidentally hit her in the head. ""She began chasing me, and I called her a 'little curly-headed chicken',"" he said. A feisty Lucille caught him and dunked him into a rain barrel, Harold laughingly recalled. With sincerity he added, ""Regardless of any misunderstandings we may have had, she's my sister and I love her."" He remembers Lucille's gorgeous hair and their mother wrapping it in rags. ""She made these long beautiful curls,"" he said. In her 20s, those same curls caught the eye of Airman Robert Luedke. Looking to spread her wings, Lucille ventured from the West Virginia hills to the Colorado mountains. It was there while riding a bus from Colorado Springs to Denver that Lucille met Robert from Fort Morgan, CO. The two fell in love and moved to Fairbanks, Alaska, where they got married September 26, 1948. ""When she found Bob Luedke, she found a real gem,"" Harold said. Through Robert's Air Force career as a pilot, they lived in Massachusetts, Texas, California and finally Colorado. Their 60 years of marriage gifted them with four children: Robert Jr. (wife Vicki) of Genessee, ID, Babette of Monroe, WA, Judith of Aurora and Mark (wife Trisha) of Denver. They were blessed with grandchildren Luke and Jenny Luedke and great granddaughter Alexa Hibdon, all of Genessee, ID. She will be remembered as a strong woman who truly earned her wings as a Funk aircraft pilot, as a cultured lady who loved to read books and go to the symphony, as a loving mother who always made sure her children had good shoes and said grace at the dinner table, as a talented artist who painted beautiful watercolors and sewed fine clothes, as a compassionate caretaker of butterflies, moths, birds and anything else that wandered into her lovely garden, and as a feisty yet loving wife who fought to keep the front porch clean and yet cared for her husband so much that she followed him into heaven. Gone but never to be forgotten, we love you, Lucille