May 22, 1995 - Dayton Daily News: RPCVs remember Peace Corps Volunteer Lucille Ann Rose Raimondo who died while serving in Guatemala in May, 1995 at Age 22
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May 22, 1995 - Dayton Daily News: RPCVs remember Peace Corps Volunteer Lucille Ann Rose Raimondo who died while serving in Guatemala in May, 1995 at Age 22
RPCVs remember Peace Corps Volunteer Lucille Ann Rose Raimondo who died while serving in Guatemala in May, 1995 at Age 22
Lucille Ann Rose Raimondo served in Guatemala and died in May, 1995. The cause of death was deemed to be Accident-fall. Returned Volunteers remember Lucille Ann Rose Raimondo and leave their condolences to family and friends. Read the obituary and if you knew Lucille Ann Rose Raimondo leave your memories and remembrances below at:
Lucille Ann Rose Raimondo served in Guatemala and died in May, 1995. *
* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.
Lucille Ann Rose Raimondo served in Guatemala and died in May, 1995.
The cause of death was deemed to be Accident-fall.
Lucille Ann Rose Raimondo (F)
Died: 05/22/95
Age: 22
Serving in: Guatemala
Died in: Guatemala
Cause of Death:
Cause of death category: accident-fall
Notes:
For the Peace Corps Fallen
Read and comment on this article written by Swaziland RPCV Jack Conrad on the Memorial Service for the 254 Peace Corps Volunteers who have died in service held at Arlington Cemetery on June 23, 2002 at:
For the Peace Corps Fallen*
* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.
For the Peace Corps Fallen
This past Sunday was sunny and steamy hot in Washington, D.C. In the morning, hundreds of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers assembled beside the Lincoln Memorial. There they distributed among themselves flags from each of the countries in which the Peace Corps has served - 135 in all. They then marched, led by the flag bearers, in reverent tribute across the Potomac River to Arlington National Cemetery. At the cemetery they mounted the large hill before them, veering to the right in order to pay their respects to the agency's founder, at the grave of President John F. Kennedy. Then they continued on to the top of the hill and the amphitheater beside the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. That's where the remembrance ceremony began.
A quartet of Washington, D.C. police officers, called "Prophecy," started the commemoration with gospel music. Then Pat Reilly, President of the National Peace Corps Association Board, stood at the podium, recalling her first encounter with the Peace Corps ("You can't send me to Sierra Leone. I don't speak Spanish! Besides, I wanted to go to Africa!"). Following the assembled volunteers' singing of America the Beautiful, a Rabbi and an Imam shared their prayers with the audience, prayers for the work of the Peace Corps, prayers for Peace. Pat Reilly returned to the stage to share a poem dedicated to those volunteers who gave their lives during their service. Presented below, it packed a punch. Then an unscheduled guest took the stage, newly confirmed Peace Corps Director, Gaddy Vasquez. He shared his brief remarks about the organization, its heightened importance, and again, reverence for those who never returned from their assignments - 254 individuals in all. He disclosed that he thinks about them every day---upon entering and leaving the Peace Corps Office---as there is a large panel with the names of the departed just beside the entrance ...
Next Congressman Christopher Shays from Connecticut (RPCV, Fiji) took the stage, striking just the right note when he asserted that "We walked their paths, rode their buses, bathed in their pools and spoke their languages ... We came home different and with a greater appreciation of our country."
A few other speakers followed, Michelle Forman, the national teacher of the year (RPCV, Nepal), Harris Wofford, instrumental in the founding of the Peace Corps, later a U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania, and more recently a Clinton Administration task force member, and lastly the coordinator of the conference, Cori Welbourn Bassett (RPCV, Sri Lanka).
The ceremony ended with a final procession of the flags ...
I was honored to have the chance to depart the amphitheater carrying the flag of Swaziland. As I did, I thought about the five Swaziland PCVs who never returned from their service alive.
(1) Frederick A. Schwartz (1970)
(2) Janis Hyatt (1981)
(3) Brenda Crawford (1988)
(4) Juanita Quiton (1988)
(5) Laura Stedman (1996)
I *believe* I met Brenda and Juanita before I left Swaziland in 1987. They would have been among the latest trainees. I heard later, when I was teaching in West Africa in '88, that they had died in an auto accident, while traveling from Johannesburg to Zimbabwe, somewhere on the road between the two.
It would be interesting to hear about the personalities of these five volunteers and more about the circumstances behind their deaths. Did any of you know them?
For the Peace Corps Fallen
We who left you
Before our time
May return if you reach back
And carry a world
With us
Within you.
Let our monument
Be the mark you make
In the life you lead of peace and purpose.
Do, so that we may do
Act, so that we may act
Live, so that we may live
Again, through you.
---by Donald Maclean
Salani kahle, Bonkhosi,
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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Guatemala; Safety and Security of Volunteers; Obituaries; Volunteer Fatalities: Accident-fall
PCOL8977
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To whomever: My name is Mimi Hutcheson/ I recently visited my sister Jill at Point o'woods....I had hoped before I went there that I would be able to contact Carol Towson(maiden name) with whom I was friends as a young adolescent. My mother was friends with Anne Wofford. I talked to Barrie Silver ? this past weekend in POW and she said she knew someone who had been a classmate of Carol's at Williams. Barrie told me she would try to get a hold of one of Carol's college friends at Williams. I tried to access Williams on line last night and this morning with no results. I think it may seem trivial that I want to reconnect with Carol, but we were really buddies before I went into my shell in about 1968....Could you let me know how I can get a hold of your niece...Thank you Harris...As I was trying to find Carol, I saw more definitive descriptions of your politics....love them and suspect that because they are not the conservative......stuff that POW may have been difficult. I was taken aback this past weekend when I was at POW. ONe of the long time residents poked major holes on the New York times denigrating George W. Bush...how gross can you get....Anyway, Harris , if you can get a hold of your niece please let me know....sincerely, Mimi
Just a comment that Lucille Raimondo was 40, not 22, when she died in Guatemala on May 22, 1995.