Lucy Bradley

Lucy Irene (nee Booth) Bradley of Hulbert Lake was a 20- year teacher at Tahquamenon Area Schools in Newberry, where she was employed from 1965 through 1985. Following her retirement, she continued to tutor students in Newberry and around the Hulbert Lake community, and briefly at a school in Jamaica until February 2007, when her health began to fail. Mrs. Bradley was 87 when she died Sunday, May 11, 2008, at her home, following an extended illness.

She was born in Gladwin July 28, 1920, to Susan (nee Ferrell) and Herbert Booth, and was one of three children, including the late James Booth and Jesse Elizabeth Becker of Gladwin.

She was graduated as the salutatorian from Gladwin High School in 1938. She earned an education degree from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant in 1942, and took a position at Reed City High School.

During World War II, she served the United States by working as a civilian code breaker in Washington, D.C.

Following her war time service, she married Dr. F.K. "Ken" Bradley June 11, 1946, and they had five children. They lived in Midland for nine years before relocating to the Upper Peninsula and Newberry in 1955. They continued to spend summers with their family at a cabin on Hulbert Lake.

Mrs. Bradley loved reading books, and frequently quoted what she read. She loved working in her "wilderness" garden as well, named for the sense of wild isolation she felt living in the Upper Peninsula. For a time after the 1981 construction of her new home near the family cabin in Hulbert, she was the only yeararound resident on Hulbert Lake.

Mrs. Bradley was a member of the executive board of the Hulbert Lake Club, a Village of Newberry trustee, a member of the Tahquamenon Area Teachers' Association, treasurer of the Tahquamenon Area Retired School Personnel Association, a member of the Michigan Association of Retired School Personnel, and a member of St. Gregory's Catholic Church Parish in Newberry.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Ken, in 1973; her parents; her brother, and a favorite aunt, Irene Elthorp of Gladwin.

In addition to her sister, Beth; she is survived by five children and their families, James and Karen Bradley of Ontonagon, Timothy and Ann Bradley of Rudyard, Beth and Larry Bennett of Mt. Pleasant, Dennis and Marilyn Bradley of Portage, Wisconsin, and B.G. and Debbie Bradley of Diorite; 10 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Friends can call at the Beaulieu Funeral Home in Newberry Thursday, May 15, from noon to 2 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will follow at 2:30 p.m. at St. Gregory's Catholic Church. Father Paul Karottekunnel will officiate. Rite of Committal will follow at the Forest Home Cemetery near Newberry.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to North Woods Hospice, Beacon House of Marquette, or one's favorite charity.