Business pioneer blazed trails for others to follow
Once described by the New York Times as “an unflappable, khaki-clad grandma who also happens to be an award-winning automotive expert,” Lucille Treganowan proved that a woman’s place could be under the hood as well as in the home.
Mrs. Treganowan turned a part-time job that she needed to support her family into a business and media empire that included three Transmissions by Lucille shops and her own show on the Home & Garden TV network, now known as HGTV.
But a grease monkey she was not.
Mrs. Treganowan’s blond tresses were always a picture perfect coiffure during her appearances on television programs like “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “Home Improvement.”
“She liked the idea of being a trailblazer — going where no other women went before,” said her son Tod Treganowan, of Wilkinsburg. “It was fun and challenging, but it also gave her a feeling of accomplishment and pride that she could do this as well as a man.”
Mrs. Treganowan, who lived in a retirement home in North Versailles, died May 19 of complications from ovarian cancer. She was 92.
She grew up Lucille Anderson in Iola, Kansas, during the Depression. Times were particularly tough in Kansas, which also was crippled by the Dust Bowl years.
“They ate a lot of squirrel, rabbit, pheasant and quail growing up,” her son said. “She helped out in her father’s [plumbing business] and her dad would quiz her with the dictionary. He thought education was very important.”
In later years, Mrs. Treganowan credited her father for teaching her the same thingshe taught her brothers.
Planning to become an English teacher, Mrs. Treganowan studied at the University of Arizona, where she met and married a Pittsburgher. Leaving her education behind, she came to Pittsburgh, where in 1960 she found herself divorced and raising three children.
Mrs. Treganowan needed to make ends meet at a time when divorce and working mothers were still somewhat taboo.
At Tony Scuro’s Automatic Transmission shop in Homewood, Mrs. Treganowan worked in the office, but grew tired of being unable to provide answers to customers.
“I took a part-time job as a bookkeeper in a garage,” she told a Pittsburgh Press reporter in 1972. “Then, I got so terribly fascinated that I started studying cars all the time.”
Mrs. Treganowan became a partner in the business in 1968, before opening her own shop in Penn Hills in 1973. Eventually, she added additional locations in Hampton and Overbrook. But it wasn’t easy.
“I tried to get loans, but I was turned down everywhere. Nobody said so, but I think a lot of it was because I am a woman,” she said in
January 1985 in a Pittsburgh Press story.
Instead, Mrs. Treganowan — Pennsylvania’s Small Business Person of the Year in 1979 —- secured backing from the Small Business Administration.
“That was at a time when women didn’t even get their own credit cards or mortgages,” her son recalled.
Mrs. Treganowan had a sense of style and her businesses reflected that, painted a distinct white with seablue trim.
“She got a lot of women customers,” her son said. “And she hired a lot of female mechanics. She made it a point to hire women whenever she could.”
But some women were baffled by it all.
“Many of them didn’t drive, let alone work in a repair shop,” Mrs. Treganowan told a Post-Gazette reporter in February 1988.
Her guilt over being a single mother could at times be overwhelming.
She explained in the PG story how she once overheard two women making disparaging remarks about her parenting.
“That’s what you can expect from a mother who’s divorced and works,” they said.
She confronted the women, saying: “I’d like to tell you that you’re misinformed.”
Then, she walked away and cried in private.
She also had some funny stories about her experiences, like the time a suspicious wife called her after finding a note in her husband’s wallet with the name “Lucille,” along with her business phone number.
She assured the irate woman that her husband was seeking a repair — not an affair.
Mrs. Treganowan also got a lot of free publicity, appearing on talk shows such as “Daybreak” on KDKATV, where she hosted a segment called “Powder Puff Mechanics.”
From there, Mrs. Treganowan began teaching at local colleges and women’s clubs, before breaking into Hollywood.
Among her TV appearances, which included “Late Show with David Letterman,” it was her time on “Home Improvement” that was really the icing on the cake.
“The ‘Home Improvement’ episode with Tim Allen was the biggest thing to her,” her son recalled. “She still gets residuals for it. Every now and then, she gets a check from Disney.”
Her show “Lucille’s Car Care Clinic,” debuted in late 1994 on the Home & Garden network, where she was lauded as “America’s most trusted mechanic.”
In her 60s, Mrs. Treganowan decided to return to college, earning a bachelor’s degree in management/ communications at Chatham College.
She sold her Transmissions By Lucille business in Penn Hills in 2007.
The business was moved to Sandy Creek Road several years ago.
“We were proud to keep the Transmissions by Lucille name, that’s for sure,” co-owner Tom Eibel said. “Everybody knew Lucille, so we get a lot of repeat customers. She would come around sometimes and still take calls from customers. We’re very sorry to see her go.”
Along with her son, Mrs. Treganowan is survived by another son, David, of Wilkinsburg; a daughter, Tana Amstutz, of Leander, Texas.; and five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
A private funeral is planned in Iola, Kansas.