Lucille Welch

Lucille (Crick) (Peterson) Welch, 97, formerly of Kimmell, passed away at 12:45 a.m. Tuesday, February 11, 2020 at Lutheran Life Villages, Fort Wayne. Born March 9, 1922 in Fort Wayne, she was the daughter of Fernando and Lucinda (VanAuman) Crick.

She graduated from Elmhurst High School with the Class of 1940. Wanting to serve her country and help during WWII, Lucille served in the U.S. Marine Corps as a Military Police officer at the USO in Oceanside, California. Lucille went on to attend Kansas State University and moved back to Fort Wayne in the early 1950's. On October 23, 1964, she married William H. Welch. The two had worked together at Bowmar and the company did not allow spouses to work with each other, so Lucille took a position at GTE. As the rotary phones were being replaced with new technology, Lucille traveled around the state through her job at GTE and trained others on how to repair the first push button phones. After 23 years of working at GTE, she retired in 1987. In 1994, Lucille and Bill moved from Fort Wayne to Kimmell.

She had been a member of North Webster United Methodist Church and belonged to the Lakeland Quilt Club, Nimble Thimble Quilt Club, Indiana State Quilt Guild. She had a gift of not only quilting, but made stuffed bears, dolls and dolls' clothes and took them to many craft shows.


Survivors include children, Nancy Peterson, Nancy (Joseph, Jr.) Freiburger, Linda (Michael) Bailey, all of Kimmell, Barb (Ronald) Cole of Evansville, Darlene Bolden, Fred (Catherine) Peterson and John (Deb) Peterson, all of Fort Wayne; sister, Barb Willour of Huntington, IN; 20 grandchildren; 32 great-grandchildren; and 4 great-great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; brothers, Kenneth and Richard Crick; grandson, Stevie Hartwig; and granddaughter, Andrea Bolden.


A memorial service will be 7 p.m. Friday, February 21, 2020 at DeMoney-Grimes Funeral Home, 600 Countryside Drive, Columbia City with visitation beginning at 2 p.m. Memorial donations may be made in her memory to Heart to Heart Hospice. Visit www.demoneygrimes.com to send her family condolences online.