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At the age of 17 her father passed away and left her mother to raise Lucille along with her two brothers and a sister. Times were hard, so Lucille went to work picking cotton for 50 cents a week to help her mother with expenses. That wasn’t enough, so she answered an add in the Kansas City Star for job as an assistant for a Doctor
by the name of Leslie Laffoon. So at the age of 17, she packed up and took a train to Kansas City to work for Dr. Laffoon and his wife. She was paid $3.50 a week. She kept 50 cents for herself and sent $3.00 home to her mother and two brothers and sister.
Later the doctor opened a nursing home in Raytown, Missouri. Lucille worked there for awhile before deciding she wanted to become a beautician. She went to beauty school and got her beauticians licence in 1944.
Dr. Lafoon, also known as uncle Doc, rented a building for Lucille so she could start her own beauty shop. The building was right next door to a bakery that was owned by Adrian Gifford. She and Andrian became well acquainted and married on December 27, 1947, in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas.
After they married, she opened another beauty shop in the Waldo neighborhood of Kansas City. She operated that shop until 1960 when they then purchased the Sandman Motel in Sedalia. They owned and operated the motel until 1980, when they retired.
After retirement they became very active in Parkview Christian Church. They were charter members of Be Forever Young, the delivered meal on wheels, and like to travel. She loved cooking and collecting tea pots.
She is survived by a son Les Gifford, of LaMonte; two brothers, Joe Segraves and his wife Shirley of Sercey, Ark. and Jennings Segraves of Avon Park, Florida; several nieces and nephews.
She was predeceased by her husband Adrian A. Gifford on June 3, 2002, and a sister, Floydell Casper.
Funeral service will be held at 1:30 p.m. Thursday, at Heckart Funeral Home, with Rev. Rodney Brown officiating.
Burial will be in Ridge Park Cemetery, Marshall, Missouri.
The family will receive friends from 12:30 to 1:30 Thursday one hour prior to the service at the funeral home.
