Rosemary Evelyn Lucey; Longtime Nurse

Rosemary Evelyn Lucey, a nurse at Community Memorial Hospital for nearly 30 years, died Saturday at her home in Ventura after a long battle with cancer. She was 51.

When she wasn’t raising her daughters, Megan, now 25, and Melissa, now 21, or spending time with her friends or horseback riding, Lucey’s life was filled with activities at the hospital, said her husband, Sean Lucey.

He said Lucey helped set up the intensive care unit at the hospital and helped create the cardiac catheterization laboratory, which she later ran.

For the last five years until she became sick, Lucey worked in the emergency room.

“Rose loved working in the ER and truly enjoyed making friends with the people there,” Sean Lucey said. “Every day it was a different face and a different case.”

Shortly after she was born on Jan. 3, 1946, in Port Angeles, Wash., Lucey’s family moved to the Yosemite Valley. Her father was superintendent of roads for the National Park Service.

The Luceys were married in a little chapel in Yosemite Valley nearly 30 years ago. The couple moved to Ventura in 1969, after Lucey received her degree in nursing from Cal State Fresno.

“She touched so many people in such a positive, nurturing way,” Sean Lucey said.

Lucey is survived by her husband and two daughters, all of Ventura.

Memorial services will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Ted Mayr Funeral Home, 3150 Loma Vista Road, Ventura.