Lucie Luray Frick Kidwell

STOW - Lucie Luray Frick Kidwell of Stow, Ohio, passed away on July 10, 2025, surrounded by her children. She was 97 years old.

Lucie was born on May 25, 1928, to Albert and Esther Peters Frick, in Irwin, Pennsylvania. At a young age, she moved with her parents to Washington, D.C., where she grew up in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. During WWII, Lucie volunteered with the Red Cross, distributing coffee, sandwiches, magazines, and cigarettes to GIs traveling through nearby Washington Union Station on their way to combat in Europe and the Pacific. She enjoyed crooners and big band music all her life; in her youth, she saw many big acts, including Frank Sinatra and the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and loved to go dancing with friends at the Spanish Ballroom in Glen Echo Park.

She was a 1946 graduate of Eastern High School, a 1947 graduate of the Washington School for Secretaries, and a member of Eastern Presbyterian Church. As a young woman, she worked as secretary to the president of a savings and loan in downtown D.C. She would later recall with wry amusement, her daily commute on the open street cars during the humid D.C. summers, dressed in the cumbersome contemporary wardrobe of a professional woman, replete with gloves, stockings, skirt, jacket, and hat.

In 1950 she married Joseph “Joe” Kidwell, whom she knew through church. Lucie and Joe lived in Maryland, Ohio, and Maine prior to settling in Stow, Ohio in 1968. The couple had three children together. Following Joe’s untimely death in 1971, Lucie went to work as a secretary for Stow City Schools, where she was beloved by generations of students until her retirement in 1994.

Following her father’s passing in 1982, Lucie’s mother came to live with her until Esther’s own passing in 2002. Esther’s miniature schnauzer, Fritz, was adored by Lucie and remained her faithful companion until he passed away at 19 years of age.

Lucie was kind of heart and meticulous in all pursuits. She loved to play cards and board games; wielding a formidable vocabulary, she was particularly adept at Scrabble. She was an avid and skilled gardener, an amateur ornithologist, a voracious reader, a loyal Cleveland baseball fan, and a wonderful cook and baker. Her chicken pot pies, and Christmas cookies were especially famous. Lucie loved to give gifts, with Christmas and family birthdays among her favorite occasions.

Lucie is survived by her three children: Cyndy (Jonathan) Rosenbaum, Jeffrey (Laurie) Kidwell, and Leslie (Jason) Conkle; six grandchildren: Emily Cicora, Aaron Rosenbaum, Abby (Manu) Lang, Jerrod (Mallory) Rosenbaum, Nathan (Maeson) Kidwell, and Rebecca (Marc) Carbone, and eight great-grandchildren: Cooper and Willow Cicora, Maggie and George Kidwell, Ezra Rosenbaum, Easton and Davis Lang, and Nicholas Carbone. She was known to those who love her as Lucie, Mom, Grandma, Mee-Maw, and Great Grandma Lucie. By any name, she will be dearly missed.

Mrs. Kidwell will be interred at Stow City Cemetery, next to her husband, Joe.