1/12/1928 – 10/28/2026
Lawrence
Lucie Marguerite Bryant, PhD (née Guichard-Toinet), age 98, passed away in her sleep on October 28, 2026 in Lawrence, KS. It was a quiet death. It was not a quiet life.
Lucie was born on January 12, 1928, in Cherbourg, France, to Émile Alfred Joseph Guichard-Toinet and Yvonne Rosalie Eugénie Guichard-Toinet (née Roullier). Her father, a naval administrative officer and an Officier de la Légion d’honneur, aided the Resistance after the fall of Paris, along with her uncles and cousins. She never forgot a childhood friend forced to wear the yellow star, who simply vanished one night. Lucie spent her life bearing witness, sharing her wartime memories lest the world forget.
After the war, she studied at the Sorbonne, completing the propédeutique, and trained at the Paris National State Teachers College, where she earned her teaching certification and the auxiliariat to teach. In 1948, she married Joseph E. Bryant, Jr., a Kansan serving in the U.S. Army. She remained in France while he was stationed in Korea, giving birth to her three children: Corinne, Nadine, and Joseph. After the war, the family followed her husband’s postings in Germany, Panama, Mexico, and Texas, before returning to Kansas in 1964
Determined to resume her education, Lucie rebuked Joseph’s ultimatum to stop, filing for divorce instead. At the University of Kansas, she earned her M.A. in 1968, her M.Phil. in 1970, and her Ph.D. in 1973, at the age of 45. Her dissertation examined the satire of law and justice in French comic theater of the late Middle Ages and the sixteenth century. She went on to teach at Wichita State University and the University of South Dakota.
In 1980, she joined the faculty of St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. There she found the American pioneer spirit she so admired: “the desire for hard work, a sensible life, and determination to develop one’s self to its utmost,” as she told the Manitou Messenger in 1985. She especially loved her office in Old Main, which opened in 1878 for a young college founded by Norwegian immigrants determined to keep their heritage alive in a new land. It was a devotion that resonated deeply with Lucie. Beneath its mansard roof, among shelves crowded with books, she kept a small corner of France warm through the long Minnesota winters. Decades later, her eldest grandchild would walk those same halls.
Her January Interim courses in France were legendary among St. Olaf students. She escorted them to Paris and the Côte d’Azur for a month of total immersion: mornings of intensive language study (with Yvonne presiding as the staunchest of grammarians), afternoons at historic sites or the theater, and long, unhurried meals to savor the cuisine. For many, those weeks were their first real taste of France. For decades after she retired with emeritus status in 1990, her mailbox overflowed every holiday season with cards from former students, sharing memories and the happy milestones of their lives.
She loved to travel, exploring the United States and the Caribbean with her daughters, Corinne and Nadine, throughout her life. Summer months always belonged to Les Charmettes in Carteret, a family tradition. June in Normandy was often cool and rainy, so the first weeks unfolded slowly. Long hours were spent with a book in hand, until everyone gathered in the late afternoon to warm up over tea and pastries. When the heat finally arrived, the days moved outdoors: to the beach or wandering the countryside. All summer long, cousins, former colleagues, and old friends came and went, reconnecting over long dinners full of laughter and cidre bouché.
Lucie passed her love of literature down to her children, and then to her grandchildren. When they were small, she read to them from a well-worn volume of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales. After reading an Americanized version of The Little Mermaid, a young Adrienne called her, indignant as to the imposition of a happy ending. Lucie roared with delight: “That is literary criticism!” She remained a voracious reader to the very end, rarely without a book at hand, and her curiosity never dimmed. For her 95th Christmas, she requested a textbook on Anglo-Saxon medieval farming.
Petite but formidable, Lucie filled every room she entered with her stories, her opinions, her thick accent, and her great, rolling laugh. Above all, she was a Norman, which she never let anyone forget. “We are Vikings!” she would proudly declare, a reminder that the Northmen who once sailed up the Seine had given Normandy its name. She exemplified that inheritance: independent, adventurous, and extraordinarily stubborn. She will be deeply missed.
Lucie was preceded in death by her father in 1964 (77) and mother in 1999 (97). Lucie is survived by her children, Corinne Yvonne Bryant of Lawrence, KS; Nadine Hazel Grzenda-Brite of Holton, KS; and Joseph (Jeannette) E. Bryant, III of Lawrence, KS; and by her grandchildren, Adrienne (Alisia Cervantes) Lucille Grzenda, MD, PhD of Los Angeles, CA; Chelsea (Leo Lenherr) Ann Bryant of Lawrence, KS; and Rachel Qingyun Bryant, MPH of Wichita, KS.
In keeping with her wishes, a portion of her ashes will be scattered in Carteret. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Olaf College.
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