Lucille Olds

Virginia Lucille Olds, 90, died in her independent living apartment in Albuquerque, New Mexico, of heart failure on March 26, 2025. She had the time and foresight to write her own obituary and her words appear in quotes.

Lucille was born November 4, 1934, in Taos, NM, where she grew up as the fourth of eight children. Her parents were E.B and Ophelia Ortiz. She won the state spelling bee in eighth grade and was valedictorian of the class of 1952 at Taos High.

She graduated from NM State University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Elementary Education and Spanish. Lucille did graduate work in Spanish at San Francisco State College and Middlebury (VT) College and earned an Masters degree from Montana State University in 1979.

"My teaching career took me to NM, CA, IL, and Wurzburg, Germany. I taught in elementary schools until the summer of 1963 when I was hired to teach Spanish to Peace Corps volunteers at the University of NM in Albuquerque.

"It was that summer I met Wally Olds in Taos where he was editor of the Taos News. We were married on March 14, 1964. After a year in Illinois, we purchased the Carbon County News and made Red Lodge, MT, our permanent home.

Our children, Whit and Cristina, were born, and our lives were changed with the joy they brought us. I went back to teaching in 1980 and taught 12 years in the Red Lodge schools."

Lucille served on the RL School Board, the State School Boards Association, the Festival of Nations Board, and belonged to the RL Hiking Club from 1965 until she moved to Albuquerque full time in 2022. She was part of PEO, an organization for the education of women, from 1968 until she died. She was a member of the St. Agnes church in RL where she enjoyed singing in the choir and serving as a lector and eucharistic minister.

Lucille was an early feminist, living independently until she was 29. Although she was a lifelong Catholic, she disagreed with the church's stance on women's roles and often wrote to the Pope urging modernization.

She was a world traveler and visited Colombia, South America, when her brother Arthur was working with Quaker Oats in 1957, and with a friend ran all over Europe when teaching on an American base in Germany. Lucille cruised to Alaska with her sisters Margaret and Anna, and toured France and Italy with her sister Sadie. She and her daughter traveled to Peru (2005), Costa Rica (2007), Acadia National Park in Maine (2010), Oaxaca (2018), and cruised Greece and Turkey in 2024.

Lucille and Wally spent winters in Sierra Vista, AZ, for 20 years. After Wally died in 2014, Lucille kept returning to AZ until Covid times in 2020 when she lived in Los Alamos, NM, with Cristina. She continued to spend summers in RL until moving to Albuquerque permanently in 2022.

Her last years at Paloma Landing were akin to dorm life with spirit week activities and communal dining with 100 friends who you live with. She painted, played chair volleyball, took walks on the arroyo, and enjoyed visits from family and friends.

Lucille had a blow-out 90th birthday with lots of family in Santa Fe in November 2024. Her heart started to give out, but she was vibrant and sharp until nearly the end and transitioned fairly peacefully while her son Whit and grandson Ben recently had been with her.

She is survived by her son Whit and his wife, Monica, of Missoula, MT; her daughter Cristina and her partner Marcy of Santa Fe; her precious grandsons, Ben, of Portland, OR, and David, of Missoula; her sisters Margaret and Anna Marie, and brother Ted, all of NM, as well as several nieces, nephews, their kids and their kids' kids.

"I had a wonderful life. My family and friends made it so. When you look on a perfect sunny day and smile, think of me. I am with you," she wrote.

Cremation has taken place, and a mass in her name will be held in the Chimayo Santuario on April 27, 2025. RL friends and Whit will hold a celebration in MT in July, and a celebration of life is planned for Santa Fe in September 2025. Memorials may be made to the Red Lodge Library (https://www.cityofredlodge.net/library) or the Carbon County Arts Guild (https://carboncountydepotgallery.org/).