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Obituary

Nurse found her roots in farming, foundation in love

Lucille Griffin met the love of her life in the Army. She made a name in nursing and business. She died July 29 at 83.

By MARTY CLEAR
Published August 12, 2005

Lucille Griffin: 1921-2005

PLANT CITY - From the day they met, Lucille Griffin's husband-to-be showed her enormous respect.

"She was a first lieutenant in the Army," her daughter Linda Clark said. "When she met my dad, he was a second lieutenant so he had to salute her."

It turned out to be strong foundation for a marriage and a working relationship. Mrs. Griffin married Haywood Mack Griffin during World War II, and they built a family and a business together. They remained married until her death from a heart attack July 29. She was 83.

Mrs. Griffin was widely known in Plant City because of two prominent careers. In the 1950s, she was the head nurse at Meriwether Hospital. At the same time, she and her husband started Sunny Acre Farm, which shipped strawberries, citrus and other produce around the country.

Both Mrs. Griffin and her husband were inducted into the Strawberry Growers Hall of Fame and were twice named Farmers of the Year by Farm Credit of Central Florida.

Mrs. Griffin was born in Millersburg, Ohio, and got her nursing training at Grant Hospital in Columbus. She joined the Army in the early days of World War II and was initially stationed at Fort Knox. It was there that she met her husband, who hailed from Plant City.

They soon married, and both served in different parts of Europe. They apparently managed some wartime meetings, though, as Mrs. Griffin was pregnant with the first of their three children when she returned.

After the war, the couple settled in Plant City and started farming. It was a new and risky career for both.

"Those were not easy times," Clark said. "My mom was putting in mega hours to make it all work. My dad was working on the farm, and she was working as a nurse to support the farm, and family."

She worked mostly at the small rural hospital, which was upstairs from the town's pharmacy. She would often perform the function of small-town doctor, leaving her home whenever neighbors were sick and needed care.

"She did that even after she retired," Clark said. "If someone needed help, we knew she was going to be gone and my dad was going to look after us."

When she wasn't tending to the sick people in Plant City, she was tending to the home and the family, working as the farm's bookkeeper.

Sunny Acre Farm provided produce for the entire country, but it also provided summer jobs for generations of Plant City youngsters. It wasn't unusual for parents to call the Griffins and ask them to hire their kids. They knew they'd be treated fairly and learn good work ethics at Sunny Acre Farm.

"A lot of the people who have gone on to be super-successful in Plant City, my parents were the ones who gave them their first jobs."

In her later years, Mrs. Griffin never forgot her business acquaintances, her patients and her former employers. She bought birthday cards by the hundreds and wrote birthday greetings year after year. It was an exhaustive undertaking that took much of her free time, but she liked the old-fashioned elegance of hand-written correspondence.

Mrs. Griffin had been in failing health in recent years and was in pain from osteoporosis. She died after her third heart attack in three years.

"She was this family's rock, and she was our buddy," her daughter said. "We're going to miss her."

She is survived by her husband and their children, Linda Clark and James and Michael Griffin.

[Last modified August 11, 2005, 08:56:11]