Lucile Alberta Rich Cole

Lucile A. Cole 1916-2011 Lucile A. Cole died after a long illness on December 4, 2011 in El Paso, Texas. She was born September 30, 1916 in Union City, Ohio. Lucile was the daughter of the late Ernest John and Della Yeatts Rich. Her older brothers Carl, Omer and Otis preceded her in death. When Lucile was two years old the family moved to Dayton, Ohio. In 1934, she graduated from Dayton’s outstanding Steele High School. Employment as a PBX operator at the Hotel Gibbons in Dayton then followed. It was there that she met Ralph Alexander Cole, the hotel’s assistant manager. She left the hotel 1936 and began working for Trans World Airlines (TWA). She flew aboard the maiden flight of the airlines’s Statoliner from Kettering Field to Albuquerque at the request of TWA’s owner Howard Hughes. In the spring of 1941 Lucile made a surprise birthday visit to Ralph A. Cole. He had returned to his home town to work as a production manager with the Milan Arsenal. September 27, 1941 they were married in Dayton, Ohio and returned to Milan, Tennessee. Lucile worked as a PBX operator with the arsenal and then was employed with the Farmers Peoples Bank. In 1942 a daughter, Viki Cole Williams was born; then a son, Richard Stephen Cole (deceased) in 1946 and in 1951, a second son, John Alexander Cole. She is also survived by a grandson, Benjamin H. Williams of San Diego, California and a granddaughter, Sara S. Williams of Houston, Texas. For many years Lucile worked as business manager of her late husband’s business, Cole Water Supply Contractors. She was a member of the Milan Cumberland Presbyterian Church and for decades, a church school teacher. In the 1950s and 1960s she was an active promoter of special education in the public schools in Gibson County. She served as a board member and book reviewer in the Mildred Fields Public Library. Lucile enjoyed serving as a long standing volunteer with the Milan General Hospital. A Memorial Service will be held at the Milan Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 6083 South First Street, Milan, Tennessee on Friday, December 16, 2011 at 11:00 AM. Services entrusted to Sunset Funeral Home-West. Please visit our online register book at www.sunsetfuneralhomes.net