Lucy Greeley Scates passed away on June 7, 2018, surrounded by her family, from complications of a stroke suffered on her 100th birthday. She was born on May 30, 1918 in Los Angeles to Helen Bailey Greeley and Michael Greeley. The second eldest of six children, she grew up at 138 North Toluca Street in downtown Los Angeles in a house built by her great-grandfather in 1886 on the site of what is now Vista Hermosa Park. She graduated from Belmont High School in 1936 and married George Scates in 1938. They were later divorced. They had two children, Allen, born in 1939, and Maxine, born in 1949.
Except for a brief hiatus after Maxine was born, Lucy had a varied working life which began, immediately after high school graduation, when she made home permanents in a backyard factory. During World War II she worked in a defense plant making walkietalkies. Post-war, she worked for the Los Angeles Police Department, and later for the Los Angeles Public Library for twenty-seven years as a Librarian Assistant in the Westchester and Palms Rancho branches. After retirement, she moved to Encinitas where she walked the hills to the ocean well into her eighties, and where she also volunteered as a Pink Lady and an elementary school librarian.
Lucy never drove, always walked, and until a month before her death attended exercise classes at The Gardens of Tarzana (Brookdale South) where she had been a resident for the last ten years. Her family was the center of her life, and we will miss her greatly. The way she faced obstacles as a single parent raising her daughter and, more recently, the physical difficulties of old age, will remain a model of tenacious optimism and resilience we will carry with us always. Most importantly, she will be remembered for the way she offered her open-hearted kindness to everyone she met.
She is survived by her son Allen Scates (Sue) of Encino, daughter Maxine Scates (Bill Cadbury) of Eugene, Oregon, sister Julia Snell, grandchildren Tracy Scates (Stewart Gilbert), David Scates, Leslie Johnson, four great-grandchildren, Donovan Scates, Terra Fowler, Jason Fowler and Elizabeth Johnson, and many nieces and nephews including Lauren Greeley Traynor and her daughter Christina who were frequent visitors in her last years.
Our gratitude goes to the loving and hardworking caregivers of The Gardens and to the nurses of Mid-Valley Hospice who cared for her during the last months of her life.
Contributions in her name can be made to the Library Foundation of Los Angeles.
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