Lucille M. Ortiz-Lawless

LUCILLE M. ORTIZ-LAWLESS Born March 6, 1954 - Lucille peacefully slipped away into eternity with her sister Sylvia holding one hand and her husband Stephen holding the other. Lucille was a lovely, vivacious person who loved and was loved by everyone she met. She lived a sensational life that most people in the world would only have dreamed of. Continue reading to see how phenomenal that life was. She was born and grew up in Las Vegas, New Mexico where she was a cheerleader and voted Miss Robertson High. She continued as a cheerleader through college at Eastern New Mexico University. After her degree she became an administrative aide to New Mexico United States Senator Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, the last man to set foot on the moon. From there she met Frank Borman, another astronaut, and went to work as another type of people person, a flight attendant for “his little” Eastern Airlines. She lived in New York and met a roommate who was a Playboy Centerfold. Together they traveled on weekends to party at the Playboy Club in the Bahamas. Lucille finally returned to Albuquerque and worked to sign up members and direct a fancy night club in the old Regent Hotel called “Julianas”. Finally she worked with her sister Sylvia to set up the highly successful Silverado apparel + home decor business. In February 1980 she met the love of her life, Stephen Lawless, and the two spent the next 41 years always together. They did it all-traveling the whole world to every continent and over 120 countries. Few people in the world can reach such a number, including such exotic places as Cambodia, Nepal, Madagascar and Easter Island. They together always spent Christmas and New Year’s abroad celebrating; for example, New Year’s Eve in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, on the beach at Rio De Janeiro and in the jungle in the Northern Frontier Territory of Kenya. For the dawn of the 21st Century she and Stephen were on a ship at the International Dateline and st celebrated the first time zone into the new Millennium and then crossed the dateline to celebrate every other time zone as they occurred. All the while Lucille made friends and loved every person she ever met. She referred to them as people she “picked up”. She is survived by her Forever Love, Stephen, her beloved cat of 12 years Connor, her sister Sylvia Spence and husband Bill, her brother Oliver Ortiz and companion Anna Chavez, her nieces, Rebecca Spence and Brandy Griffin, an uncle and many, many cousins. A Celebration of her Life will be held at the Albuquerque Country Club, 601 Laguna SW, Albuquerque, NM 87104 on Wednesday, 25 August, 2021 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Contributions may be sent in her name to the Animal Humane Society. We will always love her.