For Lucille Barenberg, it was all about the family. She was the first of four children born to Anna and William Riepl on a farm in Herndon, Kansas (March 30, 1921). Her three siblings, Marcella, Don, and Larry, were always very dear to her. She graduated from St. Mary's High School in 1939 and then made the move to Denver. She, along with her lifelong friend Aurelia, was part of the hard-working cohort who earned their degrees at St. Anthony Nursing School in the 1940s. Always attuned to children, Lucille began her career as a pediatric nurse at Denver's Children's Hospital.
On Valentine's Day, 1950, she married her Navy sailor Lester (d. 2003). Six children, Cynthia (Glenn), Galen, Patrick, Marissa (Bob), Martel, and Mary were their lively harvest. Those children then gave her the nine grandchildren and nineteen great-grandchildren with whom she shared her love and attention, and every birthday and holiday, throughout her long life.
Lucille and Lester cherished their Catholic faith, and were active and generous parishioners at St. James and Cure d'Ars in their early years and, after building an acreage home in eastern Aurora in ...[more]
1970s, at St. Pius X. The children grew up riding horses and helping on the beloved wheat farm in Bennett, Colorado.
You can take the girl out of the country, but not the country out of the girl. She made friends and kept them, maintaining her prolific letters and cards right up through the last difficult year of her life. She kept Sundays holy and work-free; Sundays were for church and fun, rides to Bennett, visiting family, swimming at the arsenal, and taking the kids for picnics. That is just one of the legacies her children honor to this day. Another is the summer fishing vacation, after harvest, to Gunnison, which has continued almost without a single break for over sixty years.
She was the trusted family historian with the most phenomenal memory. She could recover the names and whereabouts of every possible relative faster than any library. She remained close with family members, and taught her kids to do the same. Godparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings are held dear in this family, and singing around the piano, or with the guitar, is a signature Barenberg delight.
Lucille will be interred next to Lester at the Bennett cemetery. Among many others, the family thanks her many friends and caregivers.
Sunday, August 13, 2017
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM
St. Pius Tenth Parish
Sunday, August 13, 2017
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
St. Pius Tenth Parish
Monday, August 14, 2017
10:00 AM
St. Pius Tenth Parish
Monday, August 14, 2017
2:00 PM
Mountview Cemetery