Lucille Brite was born Lucille Jessie Nicodemus on December 29, 1919, in her parent's home near Richards, Colorado. She was the third of eight children born to Ray Victor and Mary Etta (Hufford) Nicodemus. The family lived on their homestead near Richards, Colorado, except for a couple of years when they moved so the older children could attend high school.

The Nicodemus family was close knit and they enjoyed working and playing together. Lucille loved and appreciated all of her brothers and sisters, and her parents and grandparents. She was also close to many of her cousins and neighbors. Their families spent so much time together, they felt almost like siblings. Some of Lucille's earliest memories included ice cream parties on Saturday nights, then church on Sunday, and a big gathering at one home or another. These were real good times; complete with big dinners and visiting, followed by ball games, horse shoes, croquet and such for entertainment.

The neighborhood kids spent a lot of time playing together even during the week, and one thing they liked to do was hold funerals for little birds or animals that had died. Laura Wray, whom Lucille always considered a sister, was usually the preacher. One time the Nicodemus kids found a little dead chicken and knew the Wray girls were coming to visit, so they put the little corpse in a match box and had it all ready for a funeral. Their dad came home before they could get started. The youngsters weren't sure what he would think about their scheme, so rather than risk getting in trouble, they hid the chicken in a bench that sat beside the kitchen table. Their plan worked and their dad didn't notice; so they felt good knowing their secret was safe. Unfortunately, by the time he left, they had forgotten all about it, only to remember a couple days later, when their very dismayed parents pinpointed the source of the disgusting smell in the kitchen!

Lucille learned to work at an early age; she had chores around the house, but was also driving a team of horses to help in the field by the age of six or so. She wanted to help and loved working in the field, but being so little, she had a couple of close calls. At the age of seven years old, Lucille was riding a little sled cultivator when she went to sleep and fell over sideways. Her leg got hung up and kept her from falling completely off, but her hand was dragging along in front of the discs. This caused her dad several moments of terror, until he could get both teams stopped to rescue her! Another time, she was driving a team of horses back to the house, when her horse, Old Pete, got anxious to get there and neither Lucille nor her other horse, Old Maude, could hold him back. They took the corner too quick and the sled caught an anchor wire, which stopped them short and caused Lucille to be thrown forward into a lever that poked her right above the eye. Her mom was outside doing the wash and came running when she heard Lucille screaming bloody murder. Lucille's eye was already swelled completely shut by the time her mom got there. As a result, Lucille didn't go back into the field for several days. She was proud that she could help out, but didn't mind getting a little vacation while waiting for her eye to open back up!

Lucille started school at Diamond Ridge, where she attended through eighth grade. The Diamond Ridge School started out as a dugout structure located about a mile north of her family home, on land owned by her great uncle, John Nicodemus. The school was named by Lucille's grandpa Abe Nicodemus. Lucille had fond memories of her grade school years. The Nicodemus kids walked to and from school in every kind of weather, including snow storms. Many times, the snow was so high; they could just walk over the fences. On their way home, they were often excited to see Granny Troy waving a dish towel from her doorway as a signal that she had a snack for them to eat. This was always considered a special treat!

After graduating eighth grade, which was as far as she could go at Diamond Ridge, Lucille went to high school at Mitchell for three years. Mitchell, a two room adobe building born of a WPA project, was located close to the Oklahoma line. The building had a removable partition down the middle, which could be taken out in order to make one large room for special occasions; otherwise one half was used for grade school and the other half for high school. Mitchell was quite a ways from the family home, so the first year Lucille attended, she and her sister, Hazel, lived in a cook shack that her dad had moved onto the old Hamilton place. For the next two years, the whole family, along with Lucille's great uncle, John Nicodemus, her Uncle Abie Nicodemus, and his three children, Vernon, Lois and Fern, moved into the Bruce house on the river. This allowed the kids from both families to be closer to school and the men could work on WPA projects.

Even though the family relocated, the school was still too far to walk, so the kids took turns driving each other in their dad's cars. They carried lunches packed in empty syrup pails. These often consisted of peanut butter or meat sandwiches, but sometimes only biscuits and syrup. When Ray and Mary got to town, they always tried to buy hot dogs, so the kids could have them in their lunches for a day or two. Lucille said if you had a hot dog or something good like that, you really had to keep an eye on our lunch pail or somebody might snitch the food right out of it!

After completing three years at Mitchell, students had to attend an accredited school the fourth year in order to receive a diploma. Lucille and her sister May moved to Walsh and lived in the cook shack, which their dad set up in Dave Pridemore's yard. Lucille was paid five dollars per month by the National Youth Association for doing janitorial work. She received an additional five dollars from the Diamond Ridge School Board to help with living expenses. Lucille graduated in 1940; she and Ray Allen were the only ones from their family to receive a diploma, which is understandable given the circumstances. As a side note, Lucille was very proud to be the first graduate of Walsh High School to have three generations of graduates, when her oldest granddaughter, Donna graduated in 1979, and then the first to have four generations of graduates when her oldest great, granddaughters, Heather and Kristi graduated in 1998.

Lucille became acquainted with Leslie Monte Brite, known as Tunie, when they both attended Mitchell High School. They started dating while Lucille was completing her senior year of high school at Walsh, and were married on December 14, 1940, by a Justice of the Peace at Richfield, Kansas. They had three daughters: Mavis, born in 1941, Lennis born in 1943, and Sandra born in 1949.

The couple made their first home at Lost Camp on the Sneed Ranch, near Kerrick, Texas, where Lucille set up housekeeping. Their little house only had three rooms and they had to make cabinets from orange crates. As part of the job, Lucille was required to board a hired man who slept out on the porch. The couple made $50 per month, and that included Lucille boarding the hired man but they were able to squeeze out five dollars to put in the bank every month. Mavis was born while they lived there and they bought their first car, a 1936 Chevy Coupe.

Next, Tunie went to work for Perkins-Protho. They moved a little closer to Kerrick and got a slightly bigger house; however, they still needed their orange crate cabinets. Their daughter, Lennis, was born during this time. The couple then returned to Baca County, where Tunie worked for Fritz Schnauffer and Chet Glover. When Tunie was drafted into the army, Lucille and the girls moved into the basement of the old Browning place where Tunie's brother, Paul and his wife, Lois, were living. A short time later, Tunie arranged for a boarding room in Mineral Springs, Texas, so Lucille could live near him while he was in infantry training. She left her young daughters with her parents and rode the train out. Lucille's traveling companions were Betty Gourley and Paul Bryan's mother, who were going to visit Paul.

Lucille worked in a laundry at Camp Walters during the time she lived there. Close to the end of his infantry training, Tunie volunteered to work on the mule pack at Fort Riley, Kansas. He found Lucille a little apartment in Junction, Kansas, where she stayed and worked in a laundry. As Tunie's time on the mule pack come to a close, Lucille returned to Baca County, where she and the two little girls lived with Tunie's parents, Cecil and Neita Brite. The Mitchell School needed a teacher for the 1945-46 school year and offered the job to Lucille, even though she didn't have a teaching certificate. She was able to teach on an emergency certificate because there weren't enough teachers during the war. Lucille couldn't remember, but thought she made about $125 each month. While Tunie was on the ship traveling to the Philippines, his billfold and all of his money was stolen. Lucille was proud to be able to send him enough money to get by on until his next pay period.

Tunie's parents kept Mavis and Lennis, along with their young daughter, Myrna, while Lucille and Dorothy, another of Tunie's sisters, drove the old '36 coupe to school each day. The old car had to be cranked every time it was started because the battery was so weak. One morning Lucille cranked the car and then jumped in right quick so she could get the choke pushed in before the car died and had to be cranked again. Sadly, she forgot to remove the crank and didn't give it another thought, until she went through a draw where one end of the crank jammed into the ground, and the other end tipped up and ran through the radiator! Needless to say, Lucille and Dorothy walked the three miles to school that day and most days thereafter.

As the school year ended in 1946, so did the war. Tunie returned home. He and Lucille moved onto the old Browning homestead and later bought it. This is where they stayed and started their farming and ranching operation and reared their three girls. They also helped in rearing three of their grandchildren: Donna, Doug and Kelly.

Lucille didn't renew her teaching contract, but worked alongside Tunie doing whatever was needed. They worked very hard over the years to build up their place. When Sandy was almost a year old, Tunie and Lucille were able to add two bedrooms, a living room and a bathroom on to their house. They also piped in water, so Lucille had running water for the first time ever. Before that she joked they had running water; they just had to pick up a bucket and run out to get it! A year or so later they got electricity as well.

Lucille was a determined little lady, and could do pretty much anything she set her mind to, so when she decided it would be nice to have a pond to keep fish and swim in, she just went out and dug one! She loosened the dirt by plowing around and around with a little Ford tractor and turning plow, and then used a scraper to pull the dirt out and form the banks. When Lucille was finished digging the pond, Tunie piped water from an overflow tank to fill it. The pond was enjoyed for many years and kept stocked with catfish, frogs and water lilies.

Years after the girls left home Lucille started collecting dolls. Eventually, she acquired all kinds of dolls and even started making them. Her handmade dolls were beautiful and probably the nicest in her collection. Lucille's fascination with dolls may have developed after a tragedy that occurred when she was very young. Granny Troy made Lucille a big rag doll, with an embroidered face and yellow yarn hair. It was the nicest doll she ever had when she was a little girl and she loved it. Lucille's mom had nails hammered into the walls of the house to hang clothing or other items on, but Lucille's brother, Edward, ran string around the nails and used them like pulleys, to raise and lower whatever he might find to hang so he could pretend like he was scalding and butchering a hog. One day Lucille came in from the yard and was horrified to discover that Edward had strung her rag doll up, and then used his pocket knife to split it open and gut it! After she was grown, Lucille always laughed when she told the story, but at the time she was really put out at him and cried and cried over her butchered doll!

In addition to doll making, Lucille spent many hours quilting, crocheting and crafting. She almost always had a project in the works and made crazy quilts for each of her fifteen grandchildren. She recently joked that making all those quilts may just have been what made her crazy! Lucille crocheted many nice afghans and doilies, even little booties and dresses for some of her great grandchildren. She crocheted an especially pretty afghan when her namesake, Jessami was born. Jessami took the afghan with her when she visited Lucille a couple of months ago. Jessami wanted to introduce Lucille to one of her new great, great granddaughters and get five generation pictures. Lucille didn't remember making the blanket, but she sure thought it was nice and did a little bragging about it to Tom! Lucille didn't paint or draw that I know of, but she was an artist nonetheless.

Tunie and Lucille celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1990, and enjoyed several more years together at their place, south of Walsh. Tunie passed away on October 1, 1996, leaving Lucille to adapt to a new normal. During the spring of 2000, Lucille rented a house in Walsh and moved to town. She enjoyed her new home; it was easier for her to get to church and handy if she wanted to ride along to one of her great grandchildren's sporting events or needed help with anything. She was always good about visiting her friends who lived in the rest home and enjoyed functions at the Senior Citizen Building. She kept busy working in the yard and even mowed her own grass until she was almost 90. When she was around 87 or 88, a couple of her grandkids decided to hire someone to mow Lucille's yard each week and they would pay for it. Lucille wouldn't have it when she found out, though. She was going to do her own mowing, because she needed the exercise to help control her blood sugar!

On June 17, 2010, Lucille travelled to Welling, Oklahoma, to visit her daughter and son-in-law, Sandra and Tom Winkle. Lucille liked staying with them so well; she decided to make it her home. Lucille lived with Sandy and Tom, who enjoyed having her and took good care of her until the time of her death on July 15, 2012. Lucille's family takes great comfort in knowing that both she and Tunie had accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. When Lucille talked about it, she called it "choosing for Christ."

Lucille was preceded in death by her parents, Ray and Mary Nicodemus; sisters: Waneta and Wilma Nicodemus, Hazel Caldwell and May Huston; brothers: Edward, Ray Allen and Willard Nicodemus; son-in-law, Elmer Pianalto, and grandson, Jason Silcox. She leaves to mourn, her daughters, Mavis Pianalto, Lennis Davison and husband Keith, Sandra Winkle and husband Tom; fourteen grandchildren; 32 great grandchildren; 13 great, great grandchildren; many nieces, nephews, cousins and good friends.