Lucy Lewis is honored for serving the incarcerated

Intermountain Catholic

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Lucy Lewis (center) received the Volunteer of the Year for the Catholic Ministry of the Incarcerated Youth and Adults at the Father Thomas J. Kaiser Banquet in January. She is shown with her son, Kenneth, and Illa Wright, coordinator of the diocesan incarcerated ministry. IC photo/Christine Young

WEST VALLEY CITY — Lucy Lewis was surprised and grateful when her name was called as the Volunteer of the Year at the Father Thomas J. Kaiser Award Banquet for the Catholic Ministry of the Incarcerated Youth and Adults held at the Diocese of Salt Lake City Pastoral Center Jan. 20.

Illa Wright, coordinator of the incarcerated ministry, presented Lewis with the award and thanked her for her 30 years of service.

"I just want to do Christ’s work without recognition," said Lewis, a member of Saints Peter and Paul Parish.

Lewis loves working for the Church and serving the poor, said Wright. "I met her in 1982 at her convenience store on 3rd West and 6th South in Salt Lake City," she said. "I used to visit her there. Lucy would cook for and feed the homeless living under the viaduct and I used to help her. That’s when she started visiting the incarcerated at the Wasatch detention center. When the Oxbow Jail opened, they placed women there and they all knew Lucy. She had helped them in some way. Lucy had also owned and operated the Jean Pierre Beauty Salon and if women could not afford to pay her, she would do their hair for free."

Lewis had a real love for the poor and no matter what age they were they called her ‘Mom’ because "I would listen to them, give them advice, and I was the only one who understood them," Lewis said. "I would talk and eat with them and sometimes if they didn’t have any food, I would pack some for them. I didn’t like them drinking on an empty stomach, so I would make them eat first. When they got arrested, they would call my store collect from the jail. If they took a train out of town, they would tell me where they were going."

In 1993, Lewis took over 200 poor people to Wanship Dam on buses donated by Lewis Brothers.

"I told them if they drank, they would have to find their own way home," she said. "This day was time for them to sort out their lives. I stayed up all night cooking for them and they had so much fun. Marlboro donated red T-shirts for them and they made posters for the buses that read ‘Here go the Homeless.’"

Lewis is a spiritual person, knows her faith and is a wonderful teacher, Wright said. "She teaches the incarcerated the Catechism of the Church and about the Bible."

When Lewis visits the incarcerated, she discusses the weekly Mass readings.

"I tell them what they’ve done is all behind them and Jesus will forgive them; Jesus is here to save our souls," she said. "That helps them realize they have choices."

Lewis immigrated to the United States from Korea in 1973, working for the U.S. government in telephone exchange. Saints Peter and Paul Parish was dedicated in 1972, and when Lewis arrived a year later, she got involved to help further establish it. She is a minister of Holy Communion at Mass and distributes Communion to the sick and homebound.

"I am a staunch Catholic," she said, adding that she learned her religious traits from her mother. "My mother taught me strict morals and good principals and I have passed them on to my son," she said.

"Lucy is also a breast cancer survivor," said Wright. "God has blessed her and Lucy said she owes all of this to Our Blessed Mother. Lucy is just a dear friend of mine."