Lucille Speeter, 91, had a keen sense of fashion, style

She also was a Vietnam War opponent and founding member of Women Against Military Madness.

By Dan Wascoe, Star Tribune
Last update: December 28, 2006 – 9:15 PM

Even from her teenage years, Lucille Speeter conveyed a sense of style.
Soon after graduating from Minneapolis Central High School with no formal art training, she sketched ads and designs for Schlampp's, a well-known furrier. She once won a contest in San Francisco that sought ideas for decorating on a budget.

As recently as this year, she designed and served as general contractor for the conversion of a three-season porch to a year-round room, said Bob Speeter, one of her six children. She seldom went anywhere without coiffed hair and high heels, he added.

Speeter of Minneapolis died Tuesday at age 91 after complications from surgery after a fall. Behind her fashion sense was a firm commitment to peace and justice issues, said her daughter Cheryl Speeter Margoles. Her mother's early opposition to the Vietnam War led her and husband, Robert, to Paris in 1971 to meet with delegations from other countries about ending the war.

She was a founding member of Women Against Military Madness in the early 1980s, participating in protests and writing letters to newspapers and political figures, her daughters said. Her son Greg absorbed those sensibilities, and today is executive director of the National Priorities Project, based in Northampton, Mass. It seeks to use the federal budget to address social and economic justice.

Margoles said one of her mother's victories came when she won over her husband, a former FBI agent, on the Vietnam issue. But she did not possess a rabble-rousing personality, Margoles said. "She was quiet-spoken, very diplomatic, personally conservative and persistent," Margoles said. "She just felt this injustice."

Son Bob said those values played out among her children. She never played favorites, he said, and, "We never argue."

While she gave up her designing job to help raise her family, her artistic skills continued to play out at home, Margoles said. "She loved sketching and drawing rooms and furniture," she said. Daughter Patrice Beddor said her mother sometimes covered barrels with elegant fabric to create fashionable end tables. She also used to stay up late working on her children's art projects and costumes. "We won many awards throughout grade school" because of those efforts, she said.

The survivors include: Robert, her husband of 65 years; sons Richard of Orono, Bob of Minnetonka and Greg of Hatfield, Mass.; daughters LuAnne of Edina, Patrice Beddor of Dexter, Mich., and Cheryl Margoles of St. Louis Park, and 14 grandchildren.

Services are scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 1 Lourdes Place, Minneapolis.
Dan Wascoe • 612-673-4436 • dwascoe@startribune.com