Lucille M. Keane

1927 - 2025

Lucille M. Keane
August 6, 1927 - August 1, 2025
Lucille (Lucy) Keane passed away early Friday morning, August 1, 2025, at Blossom Valley Assisted Living, just five days before her 98th birthday. Lucy was born August 6, 1927, in Wenatchee, Washington, to Sargie and Mae Shiflett. She grew up on her parents' Wenatchee Heights ranch, where she fell in love with raising and caring for all farm animals, but especially horses and cattle. She excelled in caring for sick or wounded animals in her care.
Lucy attended Wenatchee Heights and South Wenatchee elementary schools, graduating from Wenatchee High School with top honors. She finished one year at Wenatchee Valley College and then went home to work on the ranch she loved.
She married Delbert R Keane on March 16, 1947, at Stemilt Hill. They made their home at the Keane Ranch on the bluffs above Rock Island, where they raised wheat, cattle, and horses. Even though the dry, treeless ranch was different than the ranch life she had known, she fell in love with her new life and encountered things few women of her day got to experience. She helped round up eighty head of half-wild horses on the ranch and took them to shipping pens in South Wenatchee using what is now the walking bridge to cross the Columbia River.
While Lucy enjoyed the ranch cattle, her love was the horses she rode and raised. Lucy's biggest love was giving horses to family members whom she loved even more than the horses. The family all rode good horses for ranch work because of her generosity.
Along with ranch work, Lucy watched over cattle at Columbia Feeders and took care of cattle for Roy Taylor. She drove a school bus for the Wenatchee School District for eighteen years, mostly on the Wenatchee Heights run. Lucy was also a member of the Rock Island City Council. She was a member of the First United Methodist Church. Lucy belonged to the Stemilt Hill Grange for over seventy-five years and was secretary for those years. She was a member of the Wenatchee Eagles Ladies Auxiliary and Stemilt Hill Ladies Club.
Survivors include son Jeff (Carole) Keane, son Dane (Lisa) Keane, five grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Delbert Keane, sister Peggy (Stanton) Chase, brothers Ned (Anna Mae) Shiflett, and Tom (Ruby) Shiflett.
A Visitation will be Friday, August 8, 2025, 3 to 6 p.m. at Chapel of the Valley, 378 Eastmont Ave., East Wenatchee.
A Funeral Service will be Monday, August 11, 10 a.m. at Chapel of the Valley; Graveside service to follow at Evergreen Memorial Park, 1301 10th St NE, East Wenatchee.