Lucille Marie Birmingham (Hessling)

Lucille Marie Birmingham (Hessling), July 24, 1925–May 5, 2020, was the absolute powerhouse matriarch to the very large, very loud, and very loving Birmingham clan. A writer at heart and by trade, Lu was well-known for always having her nose in a book. She never took herself too seriously and silly behavior reigned supreme. If you loved to laugh, you loved to be around her. Plus making new friends might as well have been her real middle name. And we’re pretty sure her face shows up beside the definition of “social butterfly” in the dictionary. Lu wrote everything down, creating many stories and poems, and worked tirelessly on her autobiography. It was a never-ending piece of work, which she never intended to finish, but rather to leave as a legacy for her family. In fact, she was so in love with words that she went back to college later in life to get her Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative Writing (graduating with honors) from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Letters and Science. She was a proud member of the Sigma Tau Delta English honor society, the poetry society, and even had a few poems published. A born and raised Milwaukee native, Lucille married her high school sweetheart from St. Johns Cathedral, Francis Patrick Birmingham, in 1946. After he returned from WWII, they got married, and remained deliciously in love for 70 years until Frank’s passing in 2016. The couple lived in Wisconsin their whole lives–they were diehard Packers and Brewers fans to the very end–until 2010 when they moved to California where a few of their children still reside. RIP Lucille Marie Birmingham, our dynamic, passionate, intelligent, hilarious, powerful, Christian hero. Your name means “light” and you were ours. We know you felt as Rilke did when he wrote, “In the deepest hour of the night, confess to yourself that you would die if you were forbidden to write.” You followed your passions to the very end, so we hope you’re hanging out with Frank, writing poetry in heaven, dancing to Tony Bennett together. We’ll love you forever and miss you for always, Lucille. Lucille Birmingham is survived by 4 children, Karen Cormia and her husband David, Marybeth Dyer and her husband Steven, Joan Davis and her husband Lee, and Craig Birmingham and his wife Alisa. She also leaves 9 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, and 27 nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents, George and Anna Hessling, and one brother, George Hessling. Funeral services will be held at a later date in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made in Lucille’s name to Catholic Charities.