Jean Lucey

Lucey, Jean Age 93, passed away on December 7, 2011, at the Milwaukee Catholic Home's nursing facility. She died of natural causes following a stroke. Her husband of 60 years, former Wisconsin Governor Patrick J. Lucey, survives her. Jean was born on March 29, 1918, in Milwaukee, to Frank and Madeline Vlasis, who had emigrated from Patras, Greece in 1910. She was the sixth of nine children. Her older siblings Helen, George, Nicholas, and James had been born in Greece. Jean and her other siblings Christopher, Paul, Georgia, and Sophia were born in the U.S. Of her siblings, she is survived only by her sisters Georgia Schneider of Mequon and Sophia Zacharias of Wauwatosa. Growing up in the old Greek neighborhood on the near East Side of Milwaukee, Jean attended Milwaukee Public Schools and private Greek school. She graduated from Lincoln High School. During World War II, she enlisted in the U.S. Navy Waves, and served in a secretarial pool in Washington, D.C. Upon returning to Milwaukee, Jean became involved in politics while working for U.S. Congressman Andrew Biemiller, a former Socialist elected to Congress as a Democrat. Biemiller was a founder of Americans for Democratic Action and a leading campaigner for civil rights at the 1948 Democratic National Convention. Through her political involvement, she met Patrick Lucey, a Democratic state assemblyman from Crawford County, Wisconsin. They married in 1951. During the 1950s and 1960s, the Luceys joined with other young Democrats of the era, including Thomas Fairchild, James and Ruth Doyle, Gaylord Nelson, William Proxmire, John Reynolds and many others, in building Wisconsin's modern Democratic Party out of the remnants of the LaFollette Progressives and the Milwaukee Socialists. At the same time, the Luceys built a real estate brokerage business in Madison. In addition to her husband, Mrs. Lucey is survived by her three children, Paul (Karylmary) Lucey, Laurel (Peter) Canfield and David Lucey, and her nine grandchildren Alan and Mary Lucey; Kate, Patrick and Lily Canfield; and John, Helen, Madeline and Hanora Lucey. Visitation will be on Friday, December 9, from 4 to 7 PM, at the Feerick Funeral Home, at 2025 East Capitol Drive, Shorewood, Wisconsin. Private services will follow. Donations, in lieu of flowers may be made to the Milwaukee Catholic Home, 2462 North Prospect Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53211.