Lucille Maverette Goldsen

October 16, 1921 – May 12, 2012

Lucille Maverette Goldsen (90), passed peacefully after a brief illness, in Santa Barbara, where she had resided for ten years. Preceded in death by her beloved husband, Joseph Goldsen (1998). Survived by her son, Ralph, and granddaughters Cory and Emilia Wakamatsu, and Prompan Lucille Goldsen.

Lucille was of Irish, French Canadian, and Pennsylvania Dutch immigrant ancestry. She spent her childhood on a cattle ranch in Northern Montana, near the Blackfeet reservation and Glacier Park, where she attended one-room schoolhouses with other farming families and Native Americans. She went to India in 1943 as a civilian aide to the Army Air Corps conducting operations in Burma, where she met the Dalai Lama and Lord Mountbatten. Returning to Washington, DC, she worked for the RAND Corporation from 1945 to 1954, when motherhood occupied her. She resumed work as a volunteer administrator at the Creative Arts Workshop in New Haven, Connecticut, from 1968 to 1980. In 1980, she and Joseph retired to San Francisco, where she assisted the public library to replenish its supply of books. In 2002, she moved to Santa Barbara, where her daily use of humor to temper adversity enriched the lives and spirits of the hundreds of residents of Valle Verde with whom she lived.

She will be missed by her family and her many friends accumulated over an extraordinary lifetime. She set an example for others, by her dignity and compassion, her loyalty and diligence, and her humility and patience. She sought to reach the highest ground.

A memorial service, open to the public, is to be scheduled at Valle Verde for later in May. Her memory may be honored by doing good works and being mindful of suffering of Humanity. Special thanks go to the staff of the Valley Verde Health Center. Arrangements by McDermott-Crockett Mortuary.