Lucy Ann Melton was the last of nine children born to Dr. Stephen & Lucy Melton. Her mother died before she was nine months old and she was raised by her older brothers and sisters. She had seven younger half-brothers and half-sisters; however, they were raised in one home while Lucy and the children from the first mother lived in the house next door. She was baptized with her older sister, Birdie, when she was 16 years old. Her early years were all spent in southern Missouri. She and Walter Marenholtz met as children in Viola, Missouri and were married in Stone County when she was 18 years old. They moved to Idaho in 1918. Daughters Mildred and Mary were followed by a son, Walter Melton Marenholtz. In 1930, her husband inherited a baronetcy in Hannover Province, Germany. In 1931 the entire family left Idaho. They stopped in Missouri to visit relatives before proceeding to Germany by ship. They took the New York-Hamburg Line. Upon arriving in Germany, Lucy set about learning the language and the running of her home, referred to as Dieckhorst. She became a Baronin (wife of a Baron). They added the 'von' back to the last name at this time. Lucy always had an American accent though she became very fluent in German. Her two children born in Germany, Lucy and Robert, were not taught English in the home; however, both were registered as American citizens. Her son remembers that Lucy and Walter spoke English when talking to each other. Lucy always had a large garden and raised many of the vegetables that she had grown in America. The family made new friends and did some traveling. They vacationed at the North Sea in pre-war years. She and Walter made plans to return to the United States but were unable to do so before America declared war on Germany. The family lifestyle was abruptly changed and through the course of the war, friends and Mildred's mother-in-law came to stay at the estate. Lucy, her daughters, a piano teacher and other German refugees who lived in their home during the war helped sew an American flag to fly at the estate for when the war was over. The first American soldiers got into Dieckhorst on April 12th, 1945. When a friend from America, Army Colonel Lynn Spillman, stopped by on 18 May 1945 to find them, he noted that Lucy didn't recognize him. She had not seen a newspaper from the U.S. since 1939 and had only received one letter from America since the war. That was from her sister Flora which had just arrived four weeks earlier. The letter had come through the Red Cross and had been on its way for over a year. They spent five hours talking to Colonel Spillman, who mentioned that he had never yet seen anyone as happy to see him as were Walter, Lucy, and Mildred seemed to be. He also mentioned how worried Lucy had been about little Walter. World War 2 came to a close and the German Army made no effort to keep parents informed of wounded or missing men. Lucy and Walter would not know that her eldest son had died for quite a while. He was twenty years old. Lucy was inconsolable even years later. She did not believe authorities in 1949 when they said that his remains were being recovered and never believed that they had ever been reburied in the nearby village of Bolstice,Czechoslokia. She never got over losing Walter Melton (her good boy - as he used to say as a small child). Her youngest son, Bob, recalls that when he was seven years old, his dad and mom took a horse and carriage to Ettenbuettel to visit Dickimata and Otto. On the way home, about a mile from the estate, one of the straps holding the carriage to the tongue of the wagon broke and the wagon went over backwards. His mother ended up hitting her head on the street and suffered a concussion. His father put Bob on the horse and sent him home to get help. The Hannoverian horse remained calm throughout the entire incident. This horse was the same one that ran away with Bob once, with Bob holding on for dear life. Upon returning to the United States, Lucy settled in Seattle. At first the family stayed at her sister Flora Melton Bray's home. Then they bought a home on Latona and had two houses at Lake Sammamish. She always had lots of family around her. She and Walter celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 1967, holding their reception at the Sheraton Motor Inn in Seattle.. Lucy had dauschunds in Germany and America. She also had a white cockatoo named Petesy whose large cage was in the corner of her kitchen. Petesy would greet her each morning with "Good Morning Muttie". Petesy could whistle half of Yankee Doodle and then go astray. Petesy also would tease the dauschund, Tinker, by imitating the dog's squeaky toy. While he was in the Army, son Bob recalls that his parents took care of his black Lab, Josh. Tinker had a habit of running and jumping into his mother's lap. Josh watched that for awhile and when he saw Tinker heading for Lucy's lap, he decided the best way to beat him to her was to leap from about ten feet out. Unfortunately for Lucy, Josh was 115 pounds and knocked her and her chair over! Fortunately no one was hurt and all had a good laugh. They often had either children or grandchildren living with them, attending school. Her grandchildren remember that she cooked bacon every morning. She enjoyed an ocassional trip to Reno to play the slot machines. She never drank. She loved and doted on her children and grandchildren. She also loved animals. Muttie (mommy in German) was 87 years old when she died in 1986. She and her husband are buried in Seattle.

(copyright 2011 by Margie von Marenholtz)