Ouida “Red” Young Lucas, 92, of Tifton died of heart failure on Tuesday, July 8, 2008, at Southern Care Assisted Living. Memorial services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Friday, July 11, 2008, in the Memorial Chapel of Tifton’s First Baptist Church. Dr. Wayne Roe and Rev. Ron Lawhon will officiate. The family will receive friends at Bowen-Donaldson Home for Funerals on Friday, July 11, 2008, from 1:00 p.m. until the hour of the service.
Mrs. Lucas was born on July 28, 1915 in Rutledge, Tennessee and was the daughter of Thomas Reed Young and Sibbie Needham Young, both deceased. She was also preceded in death by her husband, Dr. Paul W. Lucas; two brothers, William Emzy Young and Austin T. Roach. She was a registered nurse and a caring and loving mother, grandmother, great grandmother and great great grandmother. She was a member of Tifton’s First Baptist Church, where she taught Sunday School for over 20 years. She graduated from Knoxville General School of Nursing with a Registered Nurse degree. She met Paul W. Lucas, M. D. in Durham, North Carolina at Duke University and they married on June 14, 1939 and were married for 63 years. They moved to Tifton in 1949. Mrs. Lucas organized the Tift County Allied Medical Careers Club in 1961 and worked with the club for 21 years. The club won state and national awards and many of the members went on to enter medical careers. She was selected “Mother of the Year” in Tifton in 1967. She was on the committee that started the nursing school at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, the United Way in Tifton and South Park Community Recreation Center. There is a scholarship named in her honor at Tift County High School for a recipient interested in entering the medical field. She organized vacation Bible schools in many churches in Tift County. She loved, helped and cared for all her children and grandchildren. That was her greatest happiness. As her grandson, Ben, said, “I love Nana and she loves me”.
Mrs. Lucas is survived by two daughters and one son-in-law, Martha L. Bryan of Tifton, and Patricia L. and Michael Stephenson of Tifton; two sisters, Louetta Young Ousley of Knoxville, Tennessee and Kathleen Young of Knoxville, Tennessee; seven grandchildren and their spouses, Bill and Josette Bryan, Bob and Gina Bryan, Bonnie Bryan and Norm Hooten, Ben Bryan, Gillian Stephenson Bradford, C. W. Bradford and Amy Blackshear Bryan; 13 great grandchildren, Mandy Bryan and Brett Hayes, Will Bryan, Katherine Bryan, Tyler Bryan, Samantha Bryan, Chelsea Bryan, Mason Hooten, Noah Hooten, Rachel Hooten, Broc Hooten, William Bradford, Michael Bradford and Emma Bradford; and one great great granddaughter, Isabelle Hayes.
Flowers will be accepted or donations may be made to United Hospice of Cordele, 708 East 16th Avenue, Cordele, GA 31015.