Lillie May Pruitt

Lillie Mae Pruitt was born to Edward and Helen Archie on February 28, 1938, in Canfield, Arkansas. At an early age, Lillie, her mother and two brothers moved to the south side of Chicago, IL where she grew up and eventually had 3 beautiful children.

She graduated from Malcolm X College in 1974 with her Associates Degree and certificate as a Medical Laboratory Technician. She went on to work at Cook County Hospital in Chicago until she moved to South Bend, Indiana in 1980. After moving to South Bend, she worked at the South Bend Medical Foundation for 7 years, and in 1989, she received her Medical Assistant certificate from Ivy Tech State College. In 1990, Lillie moved to Indianapolis, Indiana. She continued her work in the Healthcare industry and worked at Citizens Healthcare Center and then moved on to work at People’s. Lille went to H&R Block tax school and became a Certified Tax Professional in 2000. Lillie retired from People’s in 2003 after working there for 10 years.

Before and after her retirement, Lillie focused heavily on her grandchildren and great-grandchildren and making sure they knew how to read before they even went to Kindergarten. That extra-curricular education that she provided was affectionately known in the family as “Granny School”.

Lillie was preceded in death by her brothers, Antonio Grant and Edward Archie Jr.; her grandfather, Henry Sanders; her aunt, Bessie Wright; her father, Edward Archie; her mother, Helen McClendon; and her son-in-law, DaVinci Richardson.

To continue her legacy, Lillie leaves the world with three children: Larry Archie, Diana Harvey (Mark) and Denise Pruitt-Richardson (Davinci); 9 grandchildren, Alesha Barnett, Anthony Barnett (Priscilla), Syrena Gathwright, Arica Fontenot (Desmond), Laurence Archie, Amber Woodard, Lauren Archie, Steven Harris II, and Sean Harris; and 9 great-grandchildren, Atyra Seymour, Kalvin Durrett, Christopher Newman, Kaleb Durrett, Lariah Sherwood, Averi Fontenot, Chandler Nibbs, Desmond Fontenot Jr., and Raelyn Barnett; along with a village of other family and friends, who she also loved dearly.