Lea Dushinski passed away ... thanks brother, Jim and friend, Ronnie Walters!

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 3^rd 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