Mary Lucille Locke

1927 - 2024

Mary Lucille Locke

February 24, 1927 - March 23, 2024

Tacoma, Washington - Mary Lucille Locke was born in Lawrence County, Tennessee on February 24, 1927 to Leonard Franklin and Emma Esther Springer. As the youngest of seven children, her chores included lighting the kitchen woodstove every morning and carrying buckets of water from the creek to the fields where her brothers picked cotton. At age 17, she followed her oldest sister to California and met Allan Locke, her future husband, at the Montebello Theater while waiting in line to watch a movie. In 1944, as Allan completed his active naval service, Lucille became the youngest buyer for the May Company Department Store in downtown Los Angeles, before becoming a meter reader for the city. In 1945, they married and moved to Tacoma, Allan's hometown, where he began his teaching career.

In 1950, they built The Locke Apartments beside their home on Pacific Avenue. Nine years later, traffic was stopped, power lines were taken down, and crowds watched as the large Dutch Colonial house was moved up the street and placed on a lot two blocks away, where it remains the family home. In the mid-1970s, they sold the apartments they had managed for twenty-five years, and as their children became more independent, Lucille began taking pottery classes at Tacoma Community College. Within a few years, she had turned the basement into a workshop, remodeled the garage to house a gas kiln and a showroom, and sold her pottery for the next several decades at street fairs and craft shows. Eventually, she branched out into Sumi-e and watercolor painting, though working with clay was her first love.

After Allan retired, they took three cruises to Alaska. When he died in 2007, Lucille returned to Alaska alone and experienced white-water river rafting for the first time. Being on the river ignited a passion that led her to several camping excursions down the Snake and Salmon Rivers in Idaho while she was in her 80s. Well into her 90s, she climbed ladders to pick pears when her children weren't watching, and at age 96, was still driving to the YMCA twice a week for deep-water aerobics. Other passions included orchestrating large holiday parties, baking, gardening, and sewing. She was generous to her friends and remained active at All Saints Episcopal Church of Tacoma until a few months before her passing.

Lucille was preceded in death by her siblings, Ermontrude (Trudy), Lurlene, Carroll, Earl (Dick), Aaron, and John. She is survived by her children, Patricia (Cayanne Boswell), Kenneth (Shaina, Kody, Livie), and Brian (Sharyn); her grandchildren Aaron Lesaca (Chelle) and Jessica Locke (Terrence Vaccaro). She leaves behind many nieces, nephews, devoted friends, and her beloved dog, Lexie.