Lucille "Lucy" Bonvissuto

Lucille Ann Colombrito Bonvissuto

March 30, 1950 - August 7, 2021

If there was a way to look on the bright side, Lucy found it. If she wanted something, she bought it. If she thought it, she said it. If she craved it, she ate it. And if she loved you, you knew it.

(If she didn’t, she wasn’t quiet about it).

Lucy was four feet and 11 inches of chitty chatty energy. The third of John and Antoinette Colombrito’s five children, with three half-siblings from John’s previous marriage, she learned early to talk fast, eat fast, move fast and clean up the house fast so her mother would take her shopping.

Born in Miami, Lucy grew up in Florida and Texas as the family followed her father’s jobs running clothing factories. It’s where she got her sense of style, and her love of clothes.

Oh the clothes. All the closets, drawers and dormers in the house couldn’t contain them. “It’s a sin,” she’d say, holding up a new top. “I know it’s a sin. But how cute is that?”

Lucy grew up in the 60s, naive despite the changing times. One day her brother, Tom, asked if she understood the meaning behind the Doobie Brothers’ name. “Of course,” she told him. “They’re Mr. and Mrs. Doobie’s sons.”

In 1965, at a high school pool party in Florida, Lucy met Lou Bonvissuto. For reasons no one can remember, Lou threw her in the pool. She was not amused.

But she loved him. That’s what she told her father on her wedding day when he gave her one last out before they walked down the aisle. “I love him, Dad.”

And she loved Lou well — for one week shy of 50 years.

As a young woman, Lucy briefly considered a career as a flight attendant, until she realized there were height requirements and that her father wouldn’t let her wear the uniform. She worked in her father’s factories, then made boxes for wigs, but wanted to be a mom more than anything. She was a bank teller in the years before she had Laura in 1976 and Dom in 1979. More than 30 years ago, she started running the show at the dental office and did so until she couldn’t anymore.

Lucy believed in: God, America, family and her circle of friends — “the ladies,” as she called them; Being a fun LuLu with her grandkids and keeping Laura alive for Joseph and Isabelle; Being an Italian and making her mother’s deep, rich, two-day sauce; Red meat, a perfectly seasoned salad and salty, slightly burnt pretzels; Hosting parties; Keeping regular appointments for hair and nails; Taking family vacations and traveling everywhere, returning often to New York and Italy; Accessorizing everything — herself, the house, mailbox and the back of her car; QVC, TJMaxx and Facebook; A well-timed eye-roll or “Really? Ya think?”

Lucy also believed in: Toes-in-the-sand photos, suntans and late-in-life tattoos; Boycotting a company if it didn’t align with her beliefs; Talking back to the TV; Decorating for every holiday, and blowing it out at Christmas with not one, not two, but three Christmas trees — the largest for her collection of Santas. “Why have one,” she’d say, “when you can have 200?”

Most of all, Lucy was generous. Once she learned you liked something, she’d give it to you, at least once a year, usually in bulk quantities. In lieu of flowers, please consider a contribution to The LuLu Fund via GoFundMe, https://gofund.me/7369c99e which her family will use to foster generosity in her grandkids and support causes Lucy loved in her name, including the Angel Tree at Christmas, local women’s shelters and The Little Library she established in Laura’s memory.

Those she joins in heaven include her mother Antoinette “Nettie” Petrizzo Colombrito; father John Colombrito; daughter Laura Bonvissuto; sisters Ida Lyle and Jackie Colombrito; and brother John Colombrito. She is missed by her husband, Dr. Louis Bonvissuto; son and daughter-in-law Dominic and Danny Bonvissuto; sisters Barbara Sanders and Debbie Colombrito;  brothers Tom and Dominic “Donnie” Colombrito; and grandchildren Joseph and Isabelle Beard, and Jude Bonvissuto.

Please join the family in celebrating Lucy’s life: Visitation 4-7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 16 and 10-10:45 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 17 at St. Matthew Catholic Church; Funeral Mass Tuesday, Aug. 17 at 11 a.m. at St. Matthew Catholic Church; Reception and lunch immediately following at the Pavilion at Harpeth Hills Memory Gardens. The Funeral Mass will also be on the St. Matthew Catholic Church website and the church’s Facebook page via @SaintMatthewCatholicChurch.