Students conducted interviews with family members, and some were able to gather additional resources and pictures to help tell their story. While there were many great stories written, not all will be published.
This project was a collaborative effort between students’ history classes with Mrs. Kruthoff & Mr. Armstrong, English class with Ms. Baldwin, and their families. It was inspired by the original project that long-time English teacher, Mrs. Wiersema, made a tradition in her 8th grade class.
Students enjoyed getting to know more about their families, and many were surprised to learn how interesting their families were. We hope you all will enjoy their stories, too!
Lucille “Lucy” Cecelia Ryan, by Zoey Wiebenga
My Ancestor is the best person ever. She was amazing, kind, and was a fighter. Now I will tell you everything about her. Her name is Lucy Cecelia Ryan and she is my great grandma. She is on my moms side of the family and her maiden name is Stone. I picked her because my middle name is named after her. I was little when she passed, so it gave me a reason to find out things about her. When I started to learn things about her and understand what she did in life.
Lucy was born September 11, 1941 in Newton, Illinois at around 4:00 p.m. I did not find out her parents name but she lived with her parents in Newton, Illinois. I think she had 2 brothers and 2 sisters. I know one of their names and it was Great Uncle Frank. When Lucille was young she liked to be out in the wilderness and she liked to hunt, bake, and help farm that lasted till she was grown up and older.
Lucy got married to my great grandpa his name was Eugene Raymond Ryan Sr. When my grandma passed away they were still together and married. Before she passed she had six children. Their names were Pat, Chip, Anastasia, Beth Ann, Paul, and Andy. They were all of her kids’ names. I am unsure if she graduated from high school; but she did work at GE-General Electric for only two years. She did not go to college. She became a stay at home mom with her six kids while her husband worked. Don’t let that fool you she did a lot, she farmed, raised cows, goats, deer, chickens and more. She also loved to hunt and find mushrooms all around her 300ish acre farm land. Eugene lives in Morrison, IL right now in the same house they raised their family in. Lucy had been fighting breast cancer and beat it. Then developed lung cancer, she had become too weak and she ended up passing on November 24, 2019. She had a very great life and everybody loved her. We believe she came back as a cardinal as that was her favorite bird. We see her quite a bit from time to time.
In Lucy’s life she loved to farm, hunt and mushroom hunt she also loved to raise animals. Her two biggest achievements were one was she fought breast cancer for a very long time and the second one was she won the Whiteside County fairs contest and she raised six children at once. Some fun facts were she would wake up at 3 a.m. in the morning and make cinnamon rolls for the hunters. The second fun fact about Lucy is she would make double the food on Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve all by herself and then she would host it.
In conclusion, Lucy’s word would be hardworking because she raised animals and 6 kids and hosted all of the family events. One thing that Lucy did with me that I will never forget is she would take me out to the garden. She would pick fruits but I would just stand there and eat the green beans the whole time. I am spending time learning about my great grandma while I write this essay and I would love to see her someday again.
Zoey Wiebenga, Miss Baldwin’s Language Arts class
