Artwork of Lucy Hicks Anderson created in Her parents, William and Nancy Lawson, were former slaves who settled in rural Kentucky to raise their children. As a young child, she insisted on being treated as a girl, preferring to wear dresses to school and going by the name, Lucy.
When Lucy was nine years old , her mother took her to a medical professional. The doctor examined her and determined the child should be raised as a girl to match her gender identity.
Her mother agreed. Lucy Hicks Anderson would go on to live the rest of her life as a woman. At age 15, Lucy stopped attending school and became a housekeeper. She moved from Kentucky to Pecos, TX and cleaned hotel rooms for about 10 years. Over the years, Lucy Hicks continued to work as a housekeeper and eventually saved enough money to purchase an old boarding house property, converting it into a brothel that she owned and operated.
Despite the somewhat immodest nature of her profession, Lucy Hicks was well-respected in the Oxnard community throughout the s. Recognized as a gifted chef and hostess, she hosted wildly popular dinner parties and won local culinary contests , including a competition in which her custard pie won first place. Lucy Hicks Anderson in an undated photo. Her dinner parties were in such high demand that they occasionally made the local paper, Oxnard Press-Courier.
For instance, an August 3, entry highlighted her party at the Oxnard Community Center that brought together 65 people from throughout Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Beyond the socialites of Ventura County, she also hosted events for men heading to war and their families. In media reports of the era, Lucy Hicks is described as a thin, six-foot tall woman who often wore lavish dresses and donned other enviable garments of the s.
