Published: October 23, 2009 08:06 pm         

Donald Wilson Lucas

ROSEDALE — Donald Wilson Lucas, 85, of Rosedale, died at 5:30 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009, in St. Vincent Hospice, in Indianapolis. He was a retired dental equipment salesman. He was born on April 13, 1924, in Indianapolis, to the late Paul Wilson Lucas and Ruth Smiley Lucas. His first wife, Eileen Cox Lucas, whom he married June 15, 1946, died Dec. 17, 1997. On Aug. 1, 1999, he married Sue Hunnicutt Newton Lucas and she survives.

Survivors include his wife; one son, John “J.P.” Lucas and his wife Lona of Rockville; one daughter, Jayne Sanders and her husband Bill Johnson, of Vancouver, Wash.; three step-sons, Steven Newton and wife Kay and Niles Newton and wife Renee, all of Terre Haute, and Brian Newton of Grass Valley, Calif.; six grandchildren, Scott Lucas, Sean Lucas, Matt Lucas, Amy Brazil, Ben Sanders and Mary Nichols; nine great-grandchildren; and best friends and life master bridge partners, Jim and Jane Gorman of Terre Haute.

He was a 1942 graduate of Rockville High School, and attended Wabash College on an athletic scholarship and Indiana State University, where he was a Lambda Chi. He played basketball throughout his high school and college career, holding the high point record at Marshall High School. He served in the Coast Guard during World War II aboard the troop transportation ship General Robert Howze. He was a member or the American Legion Fellenzer post 48 and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Paul Taylor post 1752, both in Rockville, Terre Haute Bridge Club and was a life master bridge player, since 1982. Don “Beanie” assisted in developing the Parke County Golf Course, and in its first year, 1958, he won the first club championship and continued to golf until he was nearly 80.

At Don’s request, he will be cremated and scattered over the family farm, where his loving wife of 51 years is scattered. There will be no memorial service. Should friends so desire, memorial contributions may be made to Terre Haute Bridge Club, 303 S. 14th St. Terre Haute, IN 47807, in his memory.