Lucille Julia Zeien, 90
Lucille Julia Zeien, age 90 of New Hampton, died peacefully on Wednesday, December 30, 2020, at home.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in North Washington. If unable to attend, please join the family at 1 p.m. via Facebook Live on the Hugeback-Johnson Funeral Home Facebook page.
Friends may greet the family from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the church.
Funeral arrangements are entrusted with Hugeback- Johnson Funeral Home & Crematory in New Hampton.
Lucille Julia Zeien was born Feb. 7, 1930, on the Tilkes family farm near North Washington, to Fred and Susan (Rohe) Tilkes. She was the fourth of the couple’s five children and grew up on the farm, helping her parents with chores. She attended Catholic school in North Washington through the ninth grade and then helped her mother on the family farm.
Lucille’s best friend was a cousin to a young man named Louis Zeien, and the cousins and their friends would often go to dances together. Lucille and Louis hit it off, began dating, fell in love, and were married on Oct. 15, 1952, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in North Washington.
They farmed together and welcomed five children — Madonna, Elaine, Tom, Robert, and Peter — who remember growing up in a home with a mother who taught them the value of hard work. They also remember that mom always had freshly baked items. If it wasn’t cakes, it was bars and cookies. No one ever left Lucille’s house without having their sweet tooth filled.
The Zeiens worked together on their farm, and Lucille worked side-by-side with Louis for more than 40 years. Lucille raised broilers and geese. She had a number of laying hens and sold a lot of eggs over the years and she farrowed a lot of pigs in her lifetime.
She also always had two big gardens that grew the best vegetables one could find.
Lucille and Louis loved to go dancing and they belonged to a card club with about a dozen of their neighbors. When they retired from the farm and moved into New Hampton, they began traveling by taking bus trips that took them all over the United States.
Her family grew to include 23 grandchildren and 44 great-great-grandchildren, and Lucille adored them all; in fact, young children always had a way of finding themselves into her heart.
Lucille’s husband died on Oct. 12, 2012, and his funeral was held on the day she and Louis would have celebrated their 60th anniversary, but she continued to persevere. Well into her 80s, she delivered cookies to businesses and people in New Hampton who had helped her or had shown kindness to children.
Lucille lived a long and productive life, and as sad as her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren are over her loss, they know she is dancing with Louis in Heaven and playing a game or two of cards.
Survivors include two daughters, Madonna Hughes of Grimes, and Elaine (Dale) Glaser of Ionia; three sons, Tom (Cindy) Zeien, Robert (Nancy) Zeien, and Pete (Dixie) Zeien, all of New Hampton; 23 grandchildren; 44 great-grandchildren; and one sister-in-law, Carmen Tilkes of Elma.
She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Louis on Oct. 12, 2012; two grandchildren, Michael Zeien, Amber Zeien; great-grand- daughter, Gabriella Lippert; three brothers, Henry Tilkes, Edward Tilkes and Leo Tilkes; and one sister, Monica Geerts.
