Paulette Lusinchi

June 10, 1915 – July 21, 2018

Paulette died peacefully at the age of 103 in San Francisco. Born in Paris during World War I, she was three when her father died fighting in that war. In 1937, she met Victor, her future husband. They worked in the same building: she, for a French news agency; he, as an American journalist in Paris. They married in June 1939. A year later, escaping the Nazi invasion of France, they fled through Spain to Lisbon where they sailed on the SS Manhattan to New York and from there flew to Vic’s home in San Francisco. During World War II, in San Francisco, she worked for the Office of War Information; she was an active participant of France Forever, an organization that supported the Free French. After Liberation, she became the assistant of the first free French Consul General. She worked for the United Nations during the 1945 conference. After the war she worked for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and went to Moscow in 1947 to attend a conference of the allied powers. She worked at various international conferences in New York, Paris, and London from 1946 to 1948. When living in Geneva, where Vic was reporting for the New York Times, she worked for the World Health Organization. After Vic’s death in 1985, she stayed in Geneva and moved back to San Francisco in 2011. Until late in her life she enjoyed entertaining: hosting numerous dinners and parties. She leaves behind family in San Francisco and Paris, and friends on several continents. In lieu of flowers please consider a donation to your favorite charity and/ or to the Alliance Française of San Francisco. A funeral mass will take place on July 31 at 10 AM at Notre Dame des Victoires, in San Francisco, followed by a burial at Holy Cross Cemetery.