Larkspur historical Society
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  Lucy  Aubella Lambert

Lucy's High School Graduation Photo.

Lucy Lambert was born in 1895 five years after her parents, Joseph and Olive Ann (Ingalls) Lambert, purchased the Lilly Pratt timber claim on Cherry Creek, in eastern Douglas County.

Along with her four brothers and four sisters, Lucy attended the Cherry School where she was a good pupil and because of her love for books was thought to possibly be better suited to city life. Lucy also loved Sunday school, where her mother Olive was a volunteer teacher, and where Lucy could be found listening to the different preachers who would come round from time to time.

When it was time for high school Lucy and her sister Ida lived in Castle Rock. Ida was a year older than Lucy.  They worked for their room and board as they attended the Douglas County High School during the week, but during the weekends they could be found at the family home back on Cherry Creek having home cooked meals and visiting with the family. Lucy was an excellent pupil and before she graduated, in 1913, she took and passed the Douglas County teacher certification and was promptly hired by the Greenland school.

 Lucy had seven pupils that first year and taught eight grades, there wasn’t a kindergarten. The school board loved the job she did for the pupils and the school, as Lucy, through Box Socials, was able to raise funds. The money raised from the box socials was used to purchase playground equipment and items for the classroom. She lived nearby the school, but again, on the weekends could be found at home visiting with her family.  Lucy taught school in Douglas County for thirty years at schools in Louviers, Irving and Castle Rock. Lucy taught out of the county at Elbert in Elbert County and El Paso County in the town of Pring, which today is Monument.  In 1920 Lucy and Ida took a trip to Washington State, Lucy had a teaching position and Ida honed her skills as a cook in the lumber camps, they may have done this in Oregon also.  She also taught out of state for one year each in Wyoming and South Dakota.  It was her habit to go home on weekends and visit with the family when she was teaching in Douglas County and another habit was to work on breaks from teaching school, this is how Lucy put herself through the Greeley Teachers College along with a scholarship that she had been awarded. Two of Lucy’s sisters had been the proprietors and owners of a store in Cherry, in 1918.   In 1936 Lucy and her sister, Ida, were the owners of the M & M restaurant, in Castle Rock. Then in the 1960’s Lucy could be found working at the Rossmeish Dry Goods store in Castle Rock. This is the type of work that Lucy did between terms of school.

Lucy was living in Castle Rock in 1938 when her mother passed away, this was eight years after her father had passed. The children sold the family ranch to a nephew, Harold Lambert, and in this way kept the family homestead in the family hands.  This was about the time that the family discovered that Lucy kept a pearl handled pistol. The stories about the pistol were of her using it to kill hated rattle snakes and of not liking to be alone.  Lucy and Ida were considered the spinster sisters of the family, as they never married nor had children. They purchased a house together in Castle rock and lived there for the rest of their lives; it was on 2nd and Lewis streets. Later their youngest brother Vernie, whom was called Bugg by the family, purchased the house behind theirs and lived there with his family.




Lucy and her sister Iva.



Lucy Lambert 


 Thanks to Shirley Terry for sharing her photos.