JAN/FEB 2015
5 Plus
0
Living PLUS
Well
Lucille Gilmore
Approaching life with an attitude of
gratitude
by Martha Evans
Sparks, Staff Writer
Lucille Martin
Gilmore was born
on Sept. 4, 1914.
One hundred years later, her five
children, 12 grandchildren (one
now deceased) and 15 (so far)
great grandchildren gave her a
birthday party at the Wilmore,
KY, Community Center in Wesley
Village Senior Living Community.
Gilmore moved to Wilmore when
she was 89 in 2003 to live in one
of Wesley Village’s independentliving patio homes.
The middle child of five (four
girls and a boy), Gilmore grew up
on a farm near Franklin in western
Pennsylvania’s Venango County,
about an hour and a half north of
Pittsburgh. After earning a twoyear teaching certificate from Slippery Rock State Teachers College
(now Slippery Rock University of
Pennsylvania) in 1933, she began
her teaching career. She married
Calvin Howard Gilmore, a high
school biology teacher, on June
26, 1937. The couple lived on
Calvin’s family’s farm in Venango
County and raised their five children there.
“I taught a total of 22 years and
took18 years off to raise my family.
I think it is a shame for children to
have to be in daycare all the time,”
Gilmore said.
She taught mostly third grade,
her first love. “Third graders were
my cup of tea,” she said. “They can
behave, yet they are innocent at
that point in time. You were not
having to constantly make them
behave. They wanted to behave.
I was a strict teacher, but I could
manage them without being
cross.”
Gilmore is proud of her five
children. The eldest, Marjorie, is
married to Paul Richter, who has
a Ph.D. in chemistry. They live in
Buckhannon, W.Va. Paul taught at
West Virginia Wesleyan College
until his retirement. Next is Samuel, who lives with his wife, Pat, in
Wilmore. Sam has earned several
When you age, that is when
you need an attitude of
gratitude.”
PHOTO: Christopher Ponce for Wesley Village
10
graduate degrees; his first doctorate was in entomology. Third is
Howard Thomas, an OB-GYN. He
and his wife, Jane, live in Yankton,
SD. His entire professional life has
been spent in Yankton, where he
provides medical services for Native Americans. His mother says
Tom always felt Native Americans
“got a raw deal.” The first three
Gilmore children all went to Penn
State. Fourth in line is Susan Jean,
who went to Cornell University
to study human ecology. Among
her achievements was perfecting
a recipe for a cleaning fluid for the
energy industry. She and her husband, Charles Kauffman, whose
training is in agricultural research
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