LEARY, Lucille Goodreaux, 85, of Essex Junction, VT left this life on Sunday, December 2nd, slipping from the embrace of her family directly into God’s hands. In all, she was a woman whose life bore witness to her faith.
Born in New Orleans, LA on October 29, 1933 to Ethel Goodreaux, she grew up with her brother, Sidney (“Buddy”) Goodreaux, and her sister, Dorothy Goodreaux, secure in their mother’s love. She met her husband, Herbert Joseph Leary, Jr. at a dance where his father’s band was playing and they embarked on a life of adventures, living in Lansing, MI, Chicago, IL, Iowa City, IA, Schenectady, NY, Shaker Heights, OH, and finally in Vermont, which remained her home for 45 years. Though she later separated from her husband, Lucille was proud of the way they remained good friends until the end of his life.
Lucille had a talent for friendship and a genius for emotional connection. Those connections were instantaneous and lasted a lifetime, whether she had known you for decades, as she did Ida Marineau, Marie Danis Ducette, and Peter Van Royen; whether she’d only recently met you, as with Carole Renca; or, whether you provided the help and care she needed and appreciated in her final years, as with Monica Morano.
Throughout her life In Vermont, Lucille enjoyed a profound sense of community with a loving group of friends and neighbors, who knew each other’s stories so well, they could finish each other’s sentences. She learned to drive in her 50s and took up bridge in her 70s, thriving with the challenge (and fierce competition).
Above all, family was most important to Lucille. She loved her sister-in-law, Carmelite Lombard Goodreaux dearly as she did her nephew, nieces, great nephew and great-nieces, grand-nephews and grand-nieces. She especially enjoyed her bond with her niece, Melanie Goodreaux Fielder, who lived with Lucille during part of her college years and came to regard Vermont as one of her homes. Lucille also had a family-of-the-heart, the Reardons, and deeply loved Jacki, Paul, and her grandsons, Nicholas and Patrick. She unceasingly told her children, Herbert Joseph Leary, III and her daughter, Kimberlyn Rachael Leary, that they were the loves of her life, along with their partners, Patricia Ambrosio and Richard Hale Shaw. She danced with her son at a Vermont Governor’s Ball and met a U.S. President with her daughter; but it was most important to her that she shared these experiences with her children. Being loved in this way, fully, without condition, and with light and a great deal of laughter is Lucille’s living legacy.
We commit her to God with joy.
Lucille Leary’s mass and life celebration will be held at Holy Family Church on Saturday, December 15th at 11AM, with lunch to follow in the parish hall.
Address: 4 Prospect Street, Essex Junction, Vermont 05452
For New Orleans family and friends, a second celebration of Lucille’s life will occur at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Holy Family Church in Lucille’s memory.