Lucille Britten

Lucille Elizabeth Adriansen Britten (97) of Green Bay, Wisconsin left this earth to be with the angels and saints in heaven in the early morning hours of Friday March 13, 2020, just a few weeks shy of her 98th birthday.

Lucille was born April 2, 1922 in Green Bay to William & Alma (Kriescher) Adriansen, the oldest of eight children. She graduated from St. Joseph Academy and moved to New Mexico to teach English on the Indian Reservations. Feeling she could better serve as a nurse, Lucille moved to Amarillo, Texas, where she attended and graduated Amarillo College School of Nursing. In nursing school, her roommate, Sister Louise Britten. invited Lucille to come to Groom to spend the holidays with her family, introducing Lucille to her brother Albert. On November 22, 1956, Lucille married Albert Britten at St John The Evangelist Catholic Church in Green Bay.

Lucille was a Registered Nurse and worked for the Groom Hospital for many years until its closing, later working at Pampa Hospital and St. Ann’s Nursing Home in Panhandle, all the while taking care of many of the residents of Groom. She was an active member of the Catholic church in Groom, attending daily mass while serving in every capacity requested. After decades of service in the Christian Mothers organization, she was honored as Christian Mother of the Year, but humbly remarked “there must be someone more deserving” when told of her nomination.

Lucille was a farmer/rancher wife and mother, raising her two children, Ben and Philip, on the Britten home-place and farm near the outskirts of Groom. Lucille pursued life and work from “daylight ‘til dark” delivering meals and drinks to the field, operating tractors and combines, herding cattle, and even shooting a couple skunks and snakes “because Albert was on the tractor.”

When the work was done, Lucille and Albert were travelers, taking road trips to several states, while making an almost annual summer trip with the boys to Wisconsin and Michigan. The remaining summer Sundays were spent at the lake or in Palo Duro with large picnic meals, often with the Britten and Homen families, or with guests in from out of town. Lucille spent several weeks in Europe after her husband passed with her friends Louise Conrad and Sally Wood, traveling from Portugal to Italy, staying in monasteries and ending in the Vatican.

After her husband passed, Lucille began spending summers in Green Bay, finally moving back to Green Bay after four decades in Texas, living on the same block with her sisters and spending her days with her sisters, brothers, cousins, classmates, nieces and nephews. Lucille had returned to her childhood parish and for over a decade Lucille, Ruth, and Doris became the “laundry ladies” of St. John Homeless Shelter, finally reducing her volunteer days at 93, before “retiring” at 95. Throughout her 80s, Lucille took Spanish classes at a local college, and later at a local high school, with the high school students.

In addition to her parents, Lucille was preceded in death by her husband Albert and son Phillip; her sister Eunice Adriansen, her sister Rosie Vandenbush and her husband Ralph, her sister Doris Rommel and her husband Bill, her brother Bill Adriansen and his wife Becky. Lucille is survived by her son Ben Britten and his wife Patty, her grandchildren Brady Britten and Nikki Britten, her sister Ruth Adriansen, her brother Don Adriansen, and her brother Ron Adriansen and his wife Mary Agnes. Aunt Lucille also leaves behind her love and prayers for the dozens of nieces and nephews, their children, and children’s children.

Plans for a memorial mass at St John The Evangelist Catholic Church in Green Bay, to be followed by a memorial mass at Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church and burial in Groom are pending and subject to COVID-19 protocols. The family request donations be made to St. Johns Homeless Shelter in Green Bay, the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish Hall Fund, the Groom Ambulance Fund, or charity of your choice.