Eileen Lucas

1924 - 2023

Eileen Lucas
January 30, 1924 - June 16, 2023
Modesto, California - Eileen Ruby Boyes Lucas
Eileen loved her Modesto home, a home in which she lived since the early 1960s. Until very recently, she was active and lived alone. On Friday, Eileen passed away in her home at 99.
Born in Imperial Valley, California, Eileen, still a baby, traveled on the floorboards of the family's car as they moved to Carbona. As did her older brother Denny and her older sister Becky, Eileen attended Jefferson Grammar School and Tracy High School. While in high school, she also worked as a car hop for the local Giant Orange. Later, Eileen attended Humphrey's Business College in Stockton.
It was her expertise as a bookkeeper that helped her land a job with Campbell Soup, a job she held for 25 years. She often spoke fondly of coworkers and enjoyed attending Campbell Soup Brunch Bunch gatherings.
Eileen was a people person. With her husband Albert Lucas, she took frequent trips with their RV group, The Black Jacks. After Albert passed, she enjoyed serving as a McHenry Museum docent. More recently on Tuesdays, you could usually find her at the Modesto Senior Center playing Bunco with her friend John Stott and others, and once a month, she and her friend Trudy Taylor would go to Red Hat Society gatherings.
Born in 1924, Eileen was a resilient woman. Reared during the Great Depression, she also lived through WWII and other historical events and found herself thrust into the cell phone and social media age. As a child, she got a fresh orange in her Christmas stocking, and her mother took her, her sister, and her brother into town twice a year to buy a milkshake. Both were a real treat! On December 7, 1941, Eileen was 17 and ½, living with her first husband Jimmie Fistolera in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. She often recalled how scared she was when she saw the Japanese planes flying overhead and the harbor exploding. Eileen also saw media go from radio to television to computer and communication go from landlines with party lines to cell phones. She mastered the TV remote but never the cell phone. But what a journey – what an adventure she had!
Eileen is preceded in death by her mother, Ruby Wilma Boyes; father, Francis (Frank) Guy Ambler Boyes; oldest son, Larry James Fistolera; older sister, Rebecca Kathryn Lewis; and older brother, Dennis (Denny) Boyes.
Eileen is survived by her son, Allen Fistolera (Betty); niece, Barbara Jensen (Truman); nephew, Bill Lewis (Christine); stepdaughter, Sharon Ishop; as well as grandchildren, Tonya Fistolera (Glenn), Dianne Vanaman (Jeff), Kellie Williams, and Lee Williams; great-grandchildren, Shawn Vanaman and Adrianna Vanaman; cousin Donald Vine (Janice); great nieces and nephews; and loving neighbors who became like family, Debbie and Keith Carter.
The service to celebrate Eileen's life will be held at Lakewood Funeral Home, Heritage Chapel, on Thursday, June 29, 2023. Viewing: 1:00 – 1:30 PM. Service: 1:30 – 2:30 PM. Graveside Service: 2:30 PM. A reception in Lakewood's reception hall will follow the chapel service.
For those wishing to send flowers, please send them to Lakewood Memorial Park & Funeral Home, 900 Santa Fe Ave., Hughson, CA 95326