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HCE honors charter member Lucille Fisher

The Fayette County Home & Community Education held its 69th annual meeting Thursday, during which several awards were presented to deserving recipients for accomplishments.

Although Lucille Fisher, who is 104 years old, was unable to attend that day, she was recognized with a special certificate for being not only the most senior member, but for the fact that she was also present for the very first planning meeting to establish the Fayette County HCE, a little known fact.
Meet this remarkable lady, whose memory, attitude, conversation, mobility and interest in life belies her age.
In the Beginning …
… of Fayette County HCE, Lucille recalls that she “went to that first meeting in Vandalia, to get the organization for women started, and was the only person who came.”
That was many years ago, and thanks to interested women like Lucille, the club for Fayette County was organized, and grew as others learned about it.
Lucille joined the organization 58 years ago. A charter member, she dropped her membership when her family moved to another city for her husband Grover’s work.
She rejoined HCE, with the Sefton Unit, when she returned to Brownstown, and was an active member until her health deteriorated.
She served as an officer on the Fayette HCE Board, and was an active participant in the many activities and projects in which the organization was involved.
As a true and dedicated HCE member, she also took part in her community’s events, worked alongside her husband in their family businesses. She also served as a board member for the Golden Years Senior’s Club and was a very active worker in the Golden Years’ fundraiser of making apple butter, from gathering the apples, preparing and cooking the apples outside in a copper kettle, washing and sterilizing the utensils, jars and lids, and assisting with the sales, some of which were filled for people in other states.
Lucille also served as a community officer on the Brownstown Village Board.
Along with the Community Works …
… she raised a family – son Woody and daughter Helen. When Helen, at the age of 12, became ill with polio, Lucille diligently, with love and dedication, nursed Helen back to health, for which Helen still praises her mother for her dedication. She cared for her home and her husband of many years until his death.
She enjoys all of her family, from the youngest to the oldest, and always enjoyed having her family in for Sunday dinners, until her children insisted on taking over the preparation and serving in their homes.
She instigated her large family get-togethers of making homemade noodles for the freezer and their now-family tradition of making baklava every holiday season, The young and old all take part in these family endeavors.
At 104, Lucille …
… is, at present, is nursing a fractured arm and was unable to attend the 2017 HCE annual meeting, as events do often tire her now.
However, she insists on continuing to pay her dues and keeping up  her membership, stating that she has been a member of HCE “all these years and I’m not quitting now.”
She enjoys company and sitting at the dining room table to drink coffee with Helen and guests, and also still loves to read and chooses good literature, as she heads for the really good, non-fiction book shelves in the local library.
Thanks to women like Lucille, the Fayette County organization was formed, and although it has had different names over the years, such Farm Bureau and Home Extension, it has continued over the years.
Therefore, Lucille Fisher certainly deserved the certificate of recognition and gratitude, accompanied by a  red rose, awarded to her in her home by Fayette County HCE and the Sefton Unit, of which she has been, and still is, an HCE role model to all.  
   
 

Lucille Fisher

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