Lucy Gray Bednekoff died peacefully on October 13, 2023, at Via Christi hospital.
She was born January 30, 1929, in Tennessee, where her father, C.F. Winslow, was working as a forester. Her mother, Lucy Gray Buchanan Winslow, had worked as an elementary teacher before marriage. Lucy’s maternal grandmother, born Sarah McBride MacDougall in Scotland, came to help her daughter around the birth, and stayed after her savings vanished in the bank crash of 1929. The family soon moved to C.F.’s home state of Maryland, and Lucy spent her formative years in Laurel and Montgomery County. Her family taught Lucy to love nature, value education, and be thrifty with things and generous with deeds. Her formal education was at Sherwood public school near Olney, MD, Westtown School near Philadelphia, and the University of Maryland.
Trained as a registered nurse, Lucy worked first as a public health nurse in Richmond, Virginia. After two years, she sought something more and moved to Medical College of Virginia then to the University of Wisconsin as a nursing educator. Her mother had insisted that being able to swim was an essential life skill. It proved to be life-changing when Lucy swam out to a floating dock in Lake Mendota. While resting to swim back, she met a chemistry grad student named Alexander Bednekoff. They were married in Seattle, Washington, on September 5, 1958.
Lucy and Alec moved with his work first to Brookings, South Dakota, then four years later to Pittsburg, Kansas. In South Dakota, they became foster parents to two girls of Sioux heritage, Pat and Arlisse Grant. Lucy gave birth to their son George in South Dakota and Peter then Katherine in the first years in Kansas.
Lucy’s life in Kansas was centered on home and family. Lucy and Alec chose to buy a home and small acreage outside of town where they kept a flock of chickens, a menagerie of pets, and planted flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees. Successes were celebrated, and sometimes canned or frozen. Lucy did not complain when an abundance of green beans or crabapples meant days of processing them. The children did complain when an “apple pie” turned out to be yet another recipe utilizing an abundance of zucchini.
The Bednekoffs were active members of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, where Lucy served on the Altar Guild, taught Sunday School, and could always be counted on to contribute to potlucks, bake sales, rummage sales, and, most recently, their weekly community breakfast. Lucy was also active in community groups over the decades including extension homemaking with the Modern Farmerettes, volunteering as an Audio Reader, and the Sperry-Galligar Audubon Society.
Lucy desired to stay at her home in the country as long as possible. She persisted until December 2022, when the combined fragilities of her spine, heart, and lungs led to a move to Via Christi Village. To the end, her mind remained sharp. She spent her last months enjoying new things, particularly new sorts of music and new stories of life in far-flung places.
Lucy is survived by her husband, Alec Bednekoff; siblings, Margaret and Bob Winslow; and children, George Bednekoff, Peter Bednekoff, and Katherine Herndon, as well as six grandchildren.
A service will be held on Wednesday, October 18, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. at the St. Peter's Episcopal Church with Father Ryan Willis officiating. Burial will follow at the Highland Park Cemetery. Visitation will be held on Tuesday October 17th from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Brenner Mortuary. Memorial donations can be made to St. Peter's Episcopal Church and/or Sperry-Galligar Audubon Society. Arrangements are under the direction of the Brenner Mortuary, 114 E. 4th St., Pittsburg, KS.
