Obituary of Amy Lukens

Amy Austin Lukens, 94, of Philadelphia, died Saturday June 9 at Cathedral Village, the retirement community where she had lived since 2008. Formerly a resident of Lafayette Hill, Amy Austin was born in 1917 to Dr. J. Paul Austin and Margaret Thomas Austin, while her father was serving with the US Army in the trenches during World War I. Dr. Austin did not meet his twin daughters, Amy and Helen, until they were over a year old. Amy's twin, Helen, died in early childhood, but Amy grew up in Germantown near her cousins and grandparents, Mr. & Mrs. J. Frederick Thomas, and graduated from Germantown Friends School in 1935.

At Smith College in Northampton, MA, she studied Art History and graduated in the class of 1939. After college, she worked in the Office of the President of Princeton University. There she remembered seeing the visiting professor Albert Einstein strolling across campus.

With the advent of World War II, Amy Austin served in the SPARS, the women's branch of the Coast Guard. Lieutenant (jg) Austin was stationed first in Memphis, TN, and then in Seattle, WA, where she made many lifetime friendships with people from all around the USA. After her return from service, she became engaged to Maj. John Brockie Lukens, who had served in the US Army in the South Pacific. John B. "Jack" Lukens was the son of Dr. George T. Lukens and Anna Brockie Lukens of Conshohocken. Anna Brockie and Amy's mother, Margaret Thomas, had been best friends and classmates at Germantown Friends. Amy Austin and John B. Lukens were married at her parents' new home in Barren Hill (now Lafayette Hill) in September 1950. Mr. Lukens (UPenn A.B., M. Arch) worked for the majority of his career in Philadelphia as an architect with the National Park Service, maintaining and restoring historic buildings in the US Northeast Region.

Amy and Jack had two daughters, Margaret A. Lukens ("Margo") and Elizabeth B. Lukens ("Betsy"), whom they raised first in Oreland and then in Lafayette Hill. They sent the children to Germantown Friends for the same excellent Quaker education Amy and their mothers had received. They made a point of introducing their daughters to the lively arts including musical theater, opera and other live performances on Broadway, at the Met, and beyond. They summered in Avalon, NJ, at the cottage Amy's parents had purchased in 1923. They were supporters of the Avalon Volunteer Fire Department, the Avalon Rescue Squad, and the Wetlands Institute of Stone Harbor, NJ. Amy and Jack hosted generations of family and friends, and welcomed people from around the world to the Seven Mile Beach. They loved to travel, and travelled often with family and friends in Europe and the US. Amy made two trips to the West Coast for family events during the last two years of her life. Another special love was her series of nine pet dachshunds, who entered the family early to prepare the way for her human children.

Amy volunteered her time generously. For years she read books and newspapers aloud to be taped for the blind at The Pennsylvania Association for the Blind in Center City. The family belonged to the congregation of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church in Chestnut Hill, where Amy volunteered in the Altar Guild and the Women's Auxiliary with women who became her friends for life. She was an active member of the Colonial Dames of America, hosting celebrations in and contributing to maintenance of the Fairmount Park historic mansion, Lemon Hill. She identified deeply with Philadelphia's history and landscape. When one city administration considered removing the Frederick Remington bronze statue of the cowboy from its place on the East River (Kelly) Drive, she wrote a persuasive letter to the Editor of the Inquirer in the voice of the cowboy, asserting, "I like my view!" Perhaps because of her initiative, the statue stands today where it has always stood above the Drive.

Amy Lukens cared about culture in the City of Philadelphia, always maintaining her season subscription to the Philadelphia Orchestra. In her late forties she fulfilled a lifelong wish to study piano, which she continued for more than two decades. She hosted contestants in the Pavarotti Competition of the Philadelphia Opera Company, and her daughter Betsy recalls fearing for the crystal goblets, as a circle of singers took turns at their competition arias in her dining room.

The biggest blessing of her life was family, and when her grandchildren were born her circle was complete. Margo gave birth to Sarah Lukens Harrington in 1991, and Betsy gave birth to Eliza Lukens-Day in 1994 and Eve Lukens-Day in 1998. Sarah grew up in Maine and attends Northeastern University. Eliza and Eve are fourth-generation students at Germantown Friends School. Amy passed on her talent at watercolor painting to her granddaughters, who honed their skills under her guidance each summer at "Granny camp."

In 1994 Amy's beloved husband Jack died, but in widowhood she continued to enjoy her old friends and neighbors and to expand her circle. Beginning in the late 1990s, Amy opened her house to lodge interns from the nearby Morris Arboretum. Although these young people stayed only a year each, she made them part of her family. She kept in touch with former interns from the Midwest, New England, Canada, Great Britain, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic. Many of these interns came back to visit her in subsequent years, and she took her last trip to Europe in 2007 to visit three former interns from the Czech Republic. She hosted the last of these interns in 2008, the year of her move to Cathedral Village.

Mrs. Lukens was predeceased by her parents, her husband John Brockie Lukens, her brother J. Paul Austin, Jr., and her niece Anna Austin. She is survived by her two daughters, Margaret Austin Lukens, of Orono, ME, and Elizabeth Brockie Lukens, of Mt. Airy, and their husbands, Kenneth Dupuis and Christopher Day (respectively); three granddaughters Sarah Lukens Harrington, Eliza Lukens-Day and Eve Lukens-Day and grandson Halley Carleton; nieces Nancy Edgar Liskey, Mary Edgar, Cynthia Wheeler Ruby, Deborah Wheeler Horowitz, and nephews James P. Austin III, Stephen D. Austin, George L. Edgar, and Steven L. Wheeler and their spouses, and many cousins and dear friends. Also surviving is her excellent dachshund companion, Oliver Twist.

A service of remembrance and committal is planned for Monday, June 25 at 2:00pm in the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia. Gifts in memory of Amy Austin Lukens may be made to Wissahickon Hospice. Checks and money orders should be made payable to The Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania referencing "Wissahickon Hospice" on the memo line of the check. Checks and money orders should be mailed to:

Penn Home Care & Hospice Service -Development

3535 Market Street, Ste. 750

Philadelphia, PA 19104