Lucille Dreiling made tons of dill pickles in her 84 years but that wasn’t the only thing in her life.
She also was a community activist who kept after city officials until an unsightly gulch in southwest Denver was transformed into a park that’s used by hundreds of people each year.
Dreiling died Sept. 27 after suffering a stroke four days earlier.
That hospitalization was the first one since her youngest son, Erwin Dreiling, was born 55 years ago , said her granddaughter, Debby Dreiling.
Years ago Lucille Dreiling started her campaign to have Weir Gulch in the Barnum Park area, across the street from her house, cleaned up, and she never stopped nudging city officials to keep it that way.
The first envelope that landed on Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper’s desk when he took office was from Dreiling, he said at her service. It contained a $2 bill and some advice about focusing on important things and not narrow self-interests, Hickenlooper told The Denver Post.
She was the “classic” good citizen “and a wonderful, wonderful person,” said Hickenlooper.
Besides giving away pickles and red chocolate cakes (infused with red food coloring), Dreiling was famous for giving people $2 bills for good luck, said Debby Dreiling.
But the pickles were the important thing to Lucille Dreiling’s great grandson, Ryan Pilon of Firestone. He said at her funeral: “I hope God has a really big place in heaven so she can show them how to make pickles.”
“She was in community issues up to her elbows,” said state Rep. Jerry Frangas, who represents Dreiling’s district.
“She was a real hero,” keeping everyone interested in promoting safety and beautification in the neighborhood, said Frangas. “She just had a way of making it your concern and she drilled it home” (when she talked to lawmakers), he said. She wasn’t exactly a scold, he said, “but she gently corrected you,” often calling Frangas “to give me her opinion” about state issues.
Dreiling often hosted community meetings on her patio, inviting neighbors and lawmakers to discuss neighborhood issues.
She was honored in 2000 as Citizen of the Year by Mayor Wellington Webb.
Dreiling worked at the driver’s license bureau for 28 years.
Ruth Lucille Hetterle was born Jan. 24, 1924, on a farm near LaSalle.
The family had no electricity or indoor plumbing and everyone had chores to do: milking, gathering the eggs, working in the fields, feeding the cows and pigs, and raising vegetables. Hetterle and her two sisters walked the 3 miles to school if they didn’t get a lift.
The family buggy was sold to the Branding Iron Restaurant in Fort Lupton years ago and it still sits on top of the restaurant.
Hetterle married Alvin Dreiling in March 1943. He died in 1989.
She is survived by three sons: William Dreiling of Fort Morgan, Kenneth Dreiling of Lakewood and Erwin Dreiling of Denver; seven grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and one great-great grandchild.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
