Lucille Barrick

Lucille P. Barrick died Thursday, the 30th of December, at Retirement & Nursing Center in Austin, Texas. She was born on the 26th of April, 1925, the only child of Sherman and Loretta (Miller) Powell of Liberty Hill. Her father owned a general mercantile store there, and her childhood spent working in that store informed her entire life. Many of her memories have recently been published by Ingrid Lansford in “Country Store Kid: Lucille Barrick Tells about Old Times in Williamson County and Beyond”.

After high school, Lucille came to Austin to attend Nixon-Clay Business College. Her knowledge of bookkeeping from her dad’s store meant that there wasn’t much they could teach her, and an instructor recommended her for a job at the Austin National Bank. From there she moved to a civilian job at Bergstrom Field.

She met Robert Barrick in April of 1947 while out for dinner with a childhood friend who’d been injured in the war. On one of their early dates she introduced him to the salsa at Jaime’s Spanish Village, assuming that this young Army Air Corpsman from mid-Missouri would blanch at the heat. He passed that test, and they were married on the 26th of October, 1947. Bob passed away on the 11th of November, 1991.

Lucille tried to be a stay-at-home wife, but the early training from her father’s store was too strong and she finally convinced Bob that she needed to work. She started at Goodfriend’s Department Store as a bookkeeper, and eventually came to manage much of the sales staff. She kept their accounts even after she began her own bookkeeping and tax preparation business.

Bob worked for the State of Texas, first at the Insurance Board and then the Health Department. The last 10 years of his working life were spent as Regional Engineer for District 10 in Uvalde, Texas, and Lucille cherished her decade in this part of the state, where she worked for the Federal Land Bank and still maintained her Austin bookkeeping business. They returned to Austin in 1984.

Lucille had kept books for Dale Jones for many years, and when he sold High Fidelity, she went with the business. She continued there until her retirement in 2002, and was always treated like a queen by her “boys”. In 2006 Lucille moved to the Retirement & Nursing Center on Burnet Lane. She suffered with many health problems, but always seemed to better them, even going out to the Hula Hut for dinner on the night before she was hospitalized for the last time.

Lucille is survived by her son Dick Barrick and his wife Anita of Austin, her “grandcats” Flossie and Spooky, several nieces and nephews, and numerous friends of all ages.

The family wishes to give special thanks for their kind and constant care to doctors Ace Alsup, Archie Robinson, Brannan Smoot, and Donovan Simmons, as well as the entire staff at Retirement & Nursing Center, especially the nurses and aides of Retirement II.

Lucille was a lifelong Methodist, and for the last 52 years has given her time, talents, and treasures to St. Luke United Methodist Church in central Austin.

Friends are invited to a visitation with the family on Friday, the 7th of January, from six o’clock in the evening until eight o’clock in the evening at Cook-Walden Funeral Home, 6100 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas.

Funeral Services will be conducted at St. Luke United Methodist Church, 1306 West Lynn, on Saturday, the 8th of January, at two o’clock in the afternoon, with the interment to follow at Cook-Walden Capital Parks Cemetery in Pflugerville.

The family suggests memorial contributions be directed to St. Luke UMC, 1306 West Lynn, Austin, 78703, or a charity of your choice.