Lucile Louise Winterhalter

Important habit: Not Worrying. “I learned that from my husband during the first of our 65 years together. If I stayed awake all night fretting, he reminded me that I hadn’t solved anything and had lost a good night’s sleep.”

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1913, Lucile remembers both world wars and still treasures

the beads her cousin, who helped liberate France, brought her from Paris. “Everything was different,” says Lucile, nodding her thick, curly, perfectly coiffed white hair. The streets were wooden, and my childhood delight was racing to the window at dusk to see Larry, the Lamplighter, turn on the gas lamps.”

Lucile lived in a big house in the German section of town, where her Austrian grandfather built it in 1872 for his new bride. “Grandmother was of German decent, and there’s a hint of Indian blood in our family too,” laughs Lucile. An amusing story teller, she loves her own birth reminiscence. “While mother labored in the big bed upstairs, the doctor enjoyed the squab dinner she prepared before the pains started. That bed has seen several births including that of my oldest daughter, Lucy.”

Milwaukee’s elementary and high schools taught the classics as well as skills needed for everyday life; and Lucile, a popular and dedicated student, longed for a college education. However, the Great Depression crushed those hopes, so using her fine English and Math skills, Lucile became secretary for a local attorney, supplementing her salary working part time at Woolworth’s. A dashing traveling salesman, Glen Winterhalter, spotted her there and fell in love on the spot. Her family didn’t approve of his profession, so Lucile kept refusing his marriage proposals. Finally, he told her he had bought the furniture she admired in a local store window and that she would have to marry him.

Glen joined a Milwaukee firm and the young couple’s family quickly grew to include two daughters and one son, who unfortunately died in mid-life. Not deterred by tragedy, she turned to her faith in the Lord in good and bad times and kept busy with family and volunteer work.

Although winters were long and hard, Lucile looked forward to summers at Nicolet National Forest in Northern Wisconsin where her family owned a primitive cottage on a lake, without electricity or running water.. From age 15, when her father bought her a guide canoe, she reveled in paddling across the lake. “What was the most fun,” says Lucile, “was turning the canoe upside down and using as an umbrella when a summer storm passed.”

In 1974, the Winterhalters bought a home in Temple Terrace; and in 1995 they became University Village residents. Lucile is credited with starting both “Keeping Current” and the first Ladies Bible Study. Sadly, she lost Glen in 1999 but her daughters, Lucy Stark and Gail Sicardo, are longtime residents, definitely keeping University Village a Family Affair.

Lucile now resides at The Inn, enjoying her memory-filled apartment which she cares for meticulously. Everything has a place, including her closet which contains the perfectly matched outfits Lucile loves to wear. She constantly interacts with other residents; and if she can get someone to smile, she feels she’s had a good day.

By Lydia Lombardo

Arrangements under the direction of Blount & Curry, Terrace Oaks Funeral Hom, Temple Terrace, FL.