This story is a legend, one that is familiar to most of us, but how many of us have put it in the context of a romantic novel?
How about this plot: Take a young, beautiful Minnesota girl, aspiring to be a model, who travels to New York City to give it a try, changes her mind, when she returns for a holiday to Minnesota, and meets her dream guy, a handsome young entrepreneur. She marries him and moves to Texas with him to start their adventures together. Isn't that a perfect story line for a wonderful novel?
Christy Wooten/ The Daily Sentinel |
Local KFC owner Lucy DeWitt donated property to the SFA School of Nursing for a new building to house the nursing classes. The 17-acre gift on U.S. Hwy. 59 is where the former KFC office and warehouse building stood.
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And that wonderful legend lives right here in Nacogdoches and has lovingly dedicated her life, not only to her family, but to her adopted town. She is an inspiration to all who know her and watch for her friendly smiles and listen for her cheerful voice in greeting.
This is Lucy DeWitt.
When she and Richard (her handsome young entrepreneur who turned out to be a very adventurous businessman) came to Texas, they settled in the town of Waxahachie. Richard was managing one of the DeWitt-family chicken hatcheries there. In the 1950s, it was decided to include one of the family company hatcheries in Nacogdoches (much to the delight of those involved in the Deep East Texas poultry industry). She and Richard came along — and then she had to learn to spell Nacogdoches. It didn't take her long to get settled, and make her way into the life of the community.
Even as her family increased to five children, she was always involved either in volunteerism or in one of her adventures with "Rich."
Over the years, they bought farm land and built their own poultry houses. They bought fine horses and traveled around the world, and began collecting antiques and art products, and began buying up Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises.
They decided to "cook the chickens, instead of hatching them." So they became major investors in the KFC Company and, at one time, ended up with more than 100 "stores" as owners of Tem-Kil Co., Inc., with headquarters in Nacogdoches.
One day, Rich said it was time for him to build her a house. He did, one to accommodate all their collections, and room for all the grandchildren she was expecting.
In 1977, they sponsored a KFC convention at Hotel Fredonia for their managers ,and the most important guest was Colonel Harland Sanders himself who was flown in for the visit.
Always involved in their business, Lucy never lost track of her family's needs, or those of her community. After Rich's death in 2006, Lucy became president of the company, but decided to sell some of the stores, keeping 35. To this day, she is totally involved, although she has children involved in the company, and there is a chief operating officer.
Over the years, Lucy has always been involved in volunteerism. She has probably worn out several pink uniforms as one of the Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital Volunteer Auxiliary "pink ladies." She has served in every hospital department, at one time or another. The hospital gift shop has also been one of her special interests, and she did all she could to support and make it successful.
It was through her observations with the "pink ladies" that she realized the need for a community treatment center, and as a group, the pink ladies developed the first physical rehabilitation center, the Nacogdoches Treatment Center.
Lucy has given her time to programs at her church, her children's school Parent Teacher Association, to Scouting and to many youth programs. She is very active in the Republican Women's organization. She has served repeatedly on several community action boards.
It was through her volunteerism that Lucy realized a need in our community that she could do something about. She saw that there are never enough nurses for our medical needs. And she was determined to help solve that problem. And has she ever!
Lucy has made a gift of property to the Stephen F. Austin School of Nursing for a new building to house the nursing classes. The gift is 17 acres of prime property on U.S. Hwy. 59 north of Nacogdoches, where the former KFC office and warehouse building stood.
A new building is almost ready, and its grand opening has been announced for Jan. 24, according to Dr. Glenda Walker, SFA director of nursing.
The building will have space for four classrooms that will seat 100 students each. Everything will be state-of-the-art, such as computers built into the desks and three high-tech mannequins that will actually show results of treatments administered by the students.
For Lucy's birthday in early October, Walker gave her a copy of a quarter-page ad that will appear nationwide in the spring edition of a popular young women's magazine. The ad is a promotion of the SFA Nursing School in Nacogdoches, Texas.
This wonderful story of a lovely lady's life, her adventures and her gift may mean a trip back to the creative writing class to work on that novel. But first of all, she is a perfect example for our Senior Connection: stay busy, active, be happy, so live a long life.
