A celebration of life service has been set for Susan Luckie Reilly. Susan Luckie Reilly, a long-time resident of Twentynine Palms, died June 22, on her 101st birthday. The service will be held 10 a.m. Saturday at the Bell Center on the campus of Copper Mountain College in Joshua Tree. Reilly was the daughter of Dr. James B. Luckie, a Pasadena physician who recommended the dry desert climate of Twentynine Palms to WWI veterans suffering from the effects of mustard gas. Reilly developed a lifelong love and passion for the desert environment and was a driving force for preservation and protection of the Southern California desert. She worked at Joshua Tree National Monument as a seasonal ranger-naturalist in 1965 and maintained a close relationship with the park over the last 50 years. Reilly was a founding member of the Morongo Basin Conservation Association, which successfully fought off an initiative by the utility company to run a massive power transmission corridor straight through the heart of the Morongo Basin. Reilly received the Minerva Hoyt Award in 2004. She also received a Woman of Distinction Award given by Congressman Paul Cook in 2013. The public is invited to attend her celebration of life.
