Lucretia Roberts Januel


b. January 5, 1879 Shrewsbury, New Jersey
d. December 4, 1954 Nogales, Arizona

 
Lucretia at home in Nogales           Lucretia and Gerard Roberts

 Lucretia was the daughter of William & Abbey Emery. Her first husband was Gerard Roberts from New York. They had 3 children: Richard, Sally & John. When they divorced she moved to Arizona and went to work on a ranch owned by friends in the Canelo area. In 1914 in the first election in Arizona when women could vote, Lucretia was elected as deputy sheriff of Santa Cruz County, joining Helen Bresee Eason who was elected as Justice of the Peace; they were the earliest of women to be elected in Arizona.

 A year later, she went to New York City and the New York Times published an article about her. Reflecting on her New York experience, Lucretia commented (as reported in the Bisbee Daily Review December 5, 1915) "I don't like the East; too much noise in the streets and too many short skirts on the women. Give me Yuma every time."

 On October 22, 1920 Lucretia married George Januel, a barber from Nogales. Her son, Richard Roberts, wrote a book about her published in 1951 called Star in the West. In 1961, a movie musical called Second Time Around starring Debbie Reynolds and based on the book was released.

contributed by Linda Roslund, Jim Titus (a family friend), and written by Corbin Smith with information from Mary Kasulaitis' article November 7, 2021 on southernarizonaconnection.com

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SCS 10/15/24