Eva Green

Eva Lucille Green, age 91, passed away on June 9, 2023, in Silver Spring, MD. To family and friends, her light will never dim even as she joins her predeceased husband of 47 years, William H. Green Jr.

Lucille was born November 14, 1931 in Ruther Glen, VA., to Ezekiel and Ethel Burruss. She was one of ten children, and she attended Caroline County public schools. Lucille’s spiritual journey began with her family’s church home at Second Baptist Church. She married in 1953 and moved to Washington, D.C., in 1963 with her husband and three children: Dennis, Darlene, and William.
In the early days of marriage, she was a partner with her husband in Green’s Grill a 1950s-style dance hall and soulful restaurant where Black musicians and singers performed. That site also became home to a baseball diamond where Lucille pitched winning games in a women’s softball league. Her journey from the rural Virginia community of her childhood to Washington, D.C., reflected the yearnings of the Great Migration. Yet, she never lost her love of “the country.” They built a second home in Caroline County on family land she inherited, so she stayed close to her roots. Over the years she worked as a school bus driver and a data keypunch operator.

A sports enthusiast, she was a fan of baseball, basketball, and football and a champion athlete in her senior years. She was awarded trophies and medals as best all-around female athlete and swimmer in the DC Senior Olympics in 1988 and 1991. She continued a life of fitness as a walker and swimmer into her seventies. The same vigor she demonstrated in sports, she brought to her membership in the American Bridge Association where she was a top-scoring bridge player. She was also a card-snapping and Boston-hand-winning bid whist player who shared her love of the game with friends and young card players who wanted to learn from a winner. She pit her luck and skill against the slot machines in trips to casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, MGM National Harbor, and Live. She could be seen with either of her sons and friends scouting the best machines for play.

Over the years, Lucille provided comfort as many were welcomed to a home she filled with the warmth of friendship and kinship. There was always music, laughter, and plates of Southern cooking on the table. Her legacy and light live on in our memories of her. Through God’s grace and spirit, she rests in peace as she is reunited with the love of her life.

She is predeceased by her beloved husband, parents, and siblings Ida Blair Hunt, Myrl Jones, Arlene Burruss, and Thomas, Welford, McKee, Earl, Lincoln, and Oliver Burruss. She is survived by her children, Dennis Green (B. Marie), Darlene Taylor, and William H. Green, III; grandchildren, Marcus Taylor (Shavonn), Brandon Green, Terri Vargas (Steve), and Matthew Green; and great-grandchildren, Daejell Frazier, Steve D. Vargas, Dalayiah Vargas, Ava Taylor, and Zoë Taylor. She will be forever remembered by sisters-in-law Dorothy Burruss, Olivia Burruss, Orelia Burruss, Shirley White, Delores Green, and Keiko Green; brothers-in-law Herman Green and Tony Green; and a host of cousins, nieces, nephews, family, and friends.