Lucille Eva (Ellson) Zgonc was born on Feb. 1, 1917, in a farmhouse in Gary, Minn., during a snowstorm. The doctor who braved the storm brought the family a Christmas cactus as a gift, and the cactus lives to this day.
Lucille graduated from high school in Ada, Minn., and was the fifth of seven siblings. After earning a business degree, she was working in a Minneapolis boarding house where she met her future husband, Frank Zgonc, and they married in 1936. Like many others from the Midwest, they arrived in Vancouver in 1941 to work in the Kaiser shipyard, where Lucille became a welder.
After the war, Lucille and Frank, along with Eddie Johnson opened Eddie’s Music on Main Street and operated it for 30 years. Frank died in 1997.
The couple had two children, and Lucille enjoys four grandsons and four great-grandsons. She is a longtime member of Vancouver First Congregational Church, a rose gardener, and bridge and Carrom player. Her family celebrated her birthday with a luncheon on January 28.
A special memory she shares is when she made the game-ending center field catch during a 1940 state championship softball game in Montana. Her team, from the Missoula women’s city league, carried her off the field.
