. . . was a toddler barely 16 months old when her mother, Ella Virginia, died of tuberculosis in the late summer of 1918. Lucile's father soon took up with a woman of less than sterling repute. As the autumn of 1919 began, he married the woman, Daisy Thatcher, who expressed no interest in helping to care for his young child. Indeed, when Bert Bragg tried to bring Lucile into the household, Daisy forced a showdown. Bert caved in, and chose to placate his new wife by agreeing to send his daughter away.
He turned to a younger sister, Uda, and her husband, Ote Rybolt. With Lucile in tow, Bert went to their home and begged them to take the child in. Otherwise, he declared, he would consider putting her up for adoption.
Ote, 29, and Uda, 27, were good and conscientious people, married nine years with no children of their own. They did not hesitate. The Rybolts embraced the opportunity and took Lucile to raise as their own from that day on. Ote and Uda provided a good home for her throughout her formative years, but they always insisted that Lucile not call them her parents.
"I'm not your father," Ote told her. "You already have a father."