High Notes
12-08-2011
Lea
Duschinski died Saturday, December 3, 2011, and that was a black
day in the annals of dear old Portsmouth High.
Lea served
many years as secretary to the principal at the high school, and retired in
about 1985. Lea graduated from Portsmouth Central Catholic in
1944, and began her long career shortly after graduation. For many
years she walked to and from the school at the corner of Waller and Gallia
Streets from her home at 1606 3rd
St.
Nobody
knew the history of PHS better than Lea, for the period from 1945 until
now. Even though Lea had been retired many years she tried to
attend every home football and basketball game of PHS, and most of Portsmouth
Notre Dame’s games too. She was a true sports fan, and especially
loved The Cincinnati Reds.
Another
plus, and example of her high regard among acquaintances, was her annual
invitation to numerous class reunions every summer. I described
Lea as “The belle of a hundred class reunions,” when I emailed a notice of her
hospitalization to friends.
Lea was
also a devotee of lolling in the sun, whether at old Dreamland Pool, the Elks
Country Club pool, or a pool of one of her friends or family.
Lea lived on South Taylor Court, in Forrest Heights,
Portsmouth, until May this year, when she had a bad fall while sweeping her
sidewalk, and shattering her left elbow, and cracking her head.
She was already pretty frail from a loss of appetite, and she was
hospitalized for several weeks before being moved into Hill
View Retirement Center’s health
care facility.
Her keen
memory, devotion to her church and schools, and her extensive reading, made her
an interesting and fun companion; she was a member of several groups of friends
who ate together frequently. In recent years she complained that
her lunch and dinner groups had fallen off, but you could see Lea and Vi Gantz
at The Scioto Ribber or Damon’s most every Thursday evening. She
had a limit of two vodka drinks an evening, unless the “company or conversation
got really exciting,” she often said.
Visitation
for Lea Rose Duschinski will be 6 to 8 p.m., Wednesday, and the
funeral will be Thursday, at 1:30 p.m., at Melcher’s Funeral Home,
Portsmouth.
Lea’s good
friend, Janet Bowman said, “The funeral will be Thursday, because that’s the
only day local singer and friend, Stan Workman could sing at her funeral, and
that was a special request of Lea’s.” That is a testament to her
affinity for everything Portsmouth, as Stan is a
celebrated PHS graduate.
Always the
good Catholic, and blessed with a wry sense of humor, she told me that she, upon
attending her first movie in a theatre in years, “almost genuflected before
taking my seat.”
Brushart
was Lea’s mother, Jean’s maiden name, and she told me about a community named
“Brushart” in Kentucky, so I said, “Why don’t we
drive down and see what Brushart, Kentucky is
like?” So, in 2010 we did just that…Lea and I took off in her car,
and I drove. Brushart, is described as “a populated place” in
Greenup, County, Kentucky. We found
it!
I had Lea get out and stand by identifying signs, and I took her picture
so she could show her family, and we ended up having lunch at
Carter Cave’s State Park
resort. It was another first for Lea, and we had a good time, for
which I have pleasant memories.
Adieu old
friend, adieu.
"Medicine, law, business, engineering. They are noble pursuits, and
necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we
stay alive for."
-Tom Schulman, screewriter
-Tom Schulman, screewriter
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