Submitted by: Mary Jo Koran

WHITFIELD

Hochstetter

Jun

Lewandowski

McKernan

Szkielka

SOUTH BEND TRIBUNE – March 16, 1998

Lucinda M. Whitfield

Jan. 2, 1927 - March 14, 1998

SOUTH BEND - Lucinda Marie Whitfield, 71, was born in South Bend, Ind., on Jan. 2, 1927, to the former Mary Szkielka and Frank Lewandowski, a World War I Army veteran. Lucinda, or ''Cindy'' as she was called, was the second of two daughters. The family lived on North Johnson Street.

As a child she attended Holy Cross Grade School on Wilber Street. In 1945 she graduated from the former St. Joseph's Academy on Taylor Street, a Catholic girls' high school. Later, she worked at the St. Joseph County Department of Public Welfare as a secretary.

In 1947, while at a dance at the Palais Royale, she met Quinton Whitfield, a young Navy veteran of World War II who had come north to work at Studebaker.

Quinton was Southern; Cindy was Northern. He was Protestant; she was Catholic. He liked country living; she preferred the bustle of a city. He was a FDR Democrat; she favored the Republicans.

It was a match that, defying skeptics in both families, worked wonderfully. They were married on Feb. 12, 1949. Many differences shrank in significance when, after the wedding, Cindy borrowed her mother-in-law's recipes and learned to cook Southern.

Cindy always credited her older sister Rita for encouraging her to choose Quinton.

Nearly 10 months after the wedding, Cindy delivered twin preemies: a boy, Gary Quinton, and a girl, Renee Marie. Her third child, Paul Joseph, was born in 1952. A fourth child was lost to miscarriage and baptized by Cindy.

In the mid-1950s, Cindy urged her husband to leave Studebaker and take a pay cut to go to Bendix. It was largely through her savvy that the family avoided the painful Studebaker closing in 1964.

In 1986 Quinton died, three months before the birth of their first grandchild - Ann Lucinda ''Annie'' Hochstetter. A second grandchild, Peter Quinton ''Pete'' Whitfield, was born in 1996. An unborn grandchild is due in June.

She found solace and joy in her Catholic faith and in her grandchildren. She would often sit on the floor and push toy cars with Pete or play Beanies and Barbies with Annie.

Cindy was active in Holy Hour at Corpus Christi Church and the Christ Child Society.

On March 9, 1998, Cindy collapsed in her garage where she lay for about eight hours before a neighbor found her shivering and apparently unconscious from a massive stroke. She died on March 14 around 4:30 a.m. at Memorial Hospital.

Cindy is survived by her daughter Renee and son-in-law Bill Hochstetter, both of Portage, Ind.; a son, Gary of South Bend; a son Paul and daughter-in-law, the former Kathleen McKernan, both of South Bend; three grandchildren, Annie, 11, Pete, 2, and an unborn baby; her sister, Rita Jun of South Bend; many relatives; and by two close friends, Patricia Roth of Mishawaka and Audrey Lackman of South Bend.

Visitation will be from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday at the Kaniewski Funeral Home on Bendix Drive, with a Rosary at 3:30 p.m.

The funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. on Wednesday at Corpus Christi Church, followed by graveside rites at Highland Cemetery. A reception will follow at the home of her son and daughter-in-law at 916 W. Washington Street.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Christ Child Society.