Lucille Fletcher, retired boxing trainer and judge, and longtime West Philadelphia block captain, has died at 88
She helped her brothers and sons become professional boxers and was a neighborhood pillar at 46th and Woodland for two decades. She was also celebrated in a nearby mural.
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Lucille Fletcher, 88, of Philadelphia, retired boxing trainer and licensed amateur judge, former beautician, and longtime block captain at 46th Street and Woodland Avenue, died Thursday, May 9, of congestive heart failure at her home.
Known for decades in boxing rings around the region and throughout her West Philadelphia neighborhood as Mother Lucille, Mother Fletcher, and Miss Lucille, Mrs. Fletcher picked up boxing as a girl growing up on Peach Street and went on to tutor her seven brothers, six sons, and two daughters in the finer points of pugilism. Two of her brothers and three of her sons became professional boxers, and she grew so adept at the sport that she was hired to judge amateur bouts for what was then the Middle Atlantic Boxing Federation.
She reared her eight children as a single mother and told Daily News columnist Kitty Caparella in 1980: “I bought them all [boxing] gloves when they was young, took them downstairs in the cellar, and told them: ‘The best one wins.’”
She was a block captain on the 1300 block of 46th Street for 2½ decades, and active for years at nearby 46th Street Baptist Church and Alexander Wilson Elementary School. Her front porch was like town hall for the neighborhood, and she was so involved that artist Jon Laidacker included her in his 2007 mural, Doorway to Achievement, that once adorned the front of now-defunct Wilson Elementary School.
“I am this neighborhood,” Mrs. Fletcher told The Inquirer in 2019. “... Everybody come to me about everything, and if someone’s causing trouble and they see me coming, they know I’ll be calling the cops.”
David L. Forde Jr., then-vice president of community and government affairs for what was then the University of the Sciences, said in 2019: “Her neighbors look to her leadership to bring a voice to what they collectively desire, and she’s been a fierce advocate on their behalf.”
» READ MORE: Lucille Fletcher is immortalized in a mural. Again
Mrs. Fletcher told Sports Illustrated magazine in 1983 that she learned to fight in grade school after being bullied by other girls and became known as Little Joe Louis. Her siblings hid in the bathroom when she got mad, and she refined her boxing knowledge as her brothers advanced to the pros. Her brother Richard Turner told Sports Illustrated: “I punched her once, and she whupped me so bad that my nose bled, and my suspenders popped off.”
She knew almost instinctively how fighters should position their hands and move their feet. She absorbed strategy and was able to communicate it effectively to boxers and other judges. She followed world champions Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson when she was a girl, and unofficially counseled many fighters, including former light-heavyweight champion Matthew Saad Muhammad, in the 1980s.
“She told us to stick with your jab and come over with your right,” Turner told Sports Illustrated. “She taught us how to fight, but she never told us how to duck.” Mrs. Fletcher responded by telling writer Franz Lidz: “I always felt that if you got the best shot in and hurt ‘em, you didn’t have to duck.”
She judged amateur fights in Pennsylvania and Ohio in the 1970s and ‘80s, and never stopped being the loudest fan of her sons. She wore elegant suits to their fights, jeered opponents, razzed referees, and even used a megaphone to make herself heard above the din.
“She was a go-getter,” said her son Cantrell. “She didn’t hold anything back, and she helped out everybody.”
Lucille Turner was born Sept. 18, 1935, in Philadelphia. One of 12 children, she attended West Philadelphia High School and worked as a beautician for a time. She married William Fletcher in 1953, and they had sons Frank, Cantrell, Benjamin, Troy, Anthony, and William, and daughters Yvonne and Robin. Her husband and daughters died earlier.
Mrs. Fletcher enjoyed cooking and crocheting. She sang in several choirs and liked to decorate her home at Christmas. Later, when her boxing days were over, she held court with her mother, Ethel, and neighbors on her front porch.
“She was a brilliant person who showed tough love,” said her brother David Turner. “She was firm and took being a block captain very seriously.” Her brother Nate Turner said: “She was a good example to follow. She was always part of the neighborhood backbone.”
» READ MORE: Mrs. Fletcher bids a fond farewell to Alexander Wilson School
In addition to her sons and two brothers, Mrs. Fletcher is survived by four sisters, many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and other relatives. Five brothers died earlier.
Services were held May 18.