Eileen Lucia 1923 - 2000

Eileen Lucia, daughter of Charles Lucia, and niece of Elwood Bailey, was descended from Ira Clemens Lucia and Henrietta Lucia's 6th child, Isaac Wesley Lucia. She grew up an only child in Tampa and Detroit and took after her musician father Charlie. She was a talented dancer, singer and pianist.
After her father's death in 1937 she turned to her uncle Ira Clemens Lucia as a father figure in her life. In 1941, she married Russell Gooley and moved to Chicago with her husband. Now it was easier to visit her beloved uncle, Ira Clemens Lucia regularly in Detroit. She took Susan along on these trips and introduced her to her "Aunt Clara."
Eileen always knew about and believed that she was related to Samuel Clemens and growing up spending her summers with her grandmother in Detroit, she got to know Clara Clemens as a relative. When she was only 21 and Susan was seven she became Susan's adoptive mother. Nina had taken Susan out of school and her father was ill and dying. He wanted to protect Susan from Nina's drinking and provide her with a stable home after his death so he turned to his young niece, Eileen, to raise her. Susan remained in Chicago with Eileen most of her remaining growing up years.

This was taken Easter Sunday morning in Chicago when Susan was eight years old. Eileen's husband, Russ, had just come back from the war and they had moved into their new home. Bobby & Gail are Russ's nephew & niece. Susan considered they were her cousins growing up.

When Susan was seven and living with her father and step-mother in Tampa, Nina Gabrilowitsch took her out of her 2nd grade classroom one day and got herself arrested for it. Her father sent her to Chicago the next day to live with her cousin, Eileen Lucia. This little yellow sundress dress with black ribbons is the exact dress Susan had on the day Nina took her.

Mark Twain’s Family