My kids start swimming lessons in the morning! I’m pleased that they’ll be taking lessons four times a week instead of just once, that the lessons are much cheaper than the ones they took previously at the YMCA, that we can walk down to the local pool, and even that they are at 8am so we can finish before morning nap-time and VBS (later in July). Ogdensburg’s outdoor pool is by the St. Lawrence River and it’s named after Elsa M. Luksich. Of course, I was curious to find out who she was so I did some searches online.

From SortedByName.com I learned that Elsa M. Luksich lived from 1911 to 1983. The rest of my information came from historic newspapers.

I found a short tidbit in the Ogdensburg Advance-News, 7 August 1938.

Ogdensburg Journal, 20 February 1948 showed her involvement in the Girl Scouts.

Then in the Ogdensburg Journal, 28 August 1956 I learned that Elsa Luksich was also an international exchange counselor of the Girl Scouts who traveled to Dominica, Barbados, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, and Haiti.

Twelve years later there appeared an article in The Gouverneur Tribune-Press, 24 January 1968 describing a youth training program that Elsa Luksich directed in the county.

I also came across an obituary for Mary Katherine Hackett (1932-2016) of Ogdensburg/Morristown, which stated that she “was instrumental in the naming of the municipal pool after Elsa M. Luksich.”

I enjoyed my brief search for information about Elsa M. Luksich and especially reading her own words about her time in Dominica. If you know anything else about her please let me know!