Lucille Turner Straley

Lucille Turner Straley
Lucille Straley, our beloved mother, died Thursday, December 8, 2005, at Carolinas Medical Center. She was a south Charlotte resident, living in the Ashbrook neighborhood.
A long-time resident of West Virginia and Florida, Lucille spent the last five years in Charlotte, three houses from her son Paige. She enjoyed her cheery home, where she spent happy days telling stories of her past, growing dahlias and playing rummy.
Lucille would be proud to say she won that last game.
Her life was a glorious journey. Now she is at rest.
She and her family had deep roots in Chapmanville, WV, where she was born 88 years ago. Her teaching career began in 1936 at Big Ugly Creek in a one-room school house. Lucille, a graduate of Marshall College, was a first-grade teacher in Chapmanville Grade School from 1946 to 1959.
Her husband Joe taught biology and chemistry at Chapmanville High. Joe and Lucille lived with their children, twins Carolynn and Becky and son Paige, on a small farm south of Chapmanville at the head of Godby's Branch. They moved to Florida in 1959, where they continued teaching in St. Petersburg. She lost Joe in 1993.
Lucille was a life-long teacher, in the classroom and at home in Charlotte. Hundreds of children learned to read and count by her side in West Virginia and Florida. Long after she retired, Lucille was still sharing storybooks with children, especially her young great-granddaughters, Haydn Arminta and Raphaella Burch Sage. Their names honor Lucille Arminta Turner Straley and Joseph Burch Straley.
Lucille Straley was predeceased by her husband Joe, their daughter Becky, and her parents Vivian and Dr. James Dix Turner; as well as brothers James, Joe, Pierce and Sam Turner, and sister Faye McCarty.
She is survived by her son J. Paige Straley and his wife Dianne Whitacre of Charlotte; daughter Carolynn Nemeth and her husband Al of Vero Beach, Fl.; her sister Charmion Bullio of Hamilton, Ohio, and granddaughters Michelle Sage of Miami, Amy Treco of Los Angeles, Jo Ella Straley of Arlington, Va., grandson Ashley Lushene of Chicago, 'adopted' grandson Vic Whitacre of Charlotte and two great-granddaughters.
Visitation will be noon Sunday at Freeman Funeral Home, 2908 S. Main St., Chapmanville, WV, followed at 2:30 p.m. by a service celebrating her life.
Lucille will be buried next to Joe in the family cemetery.