Mary Lou (Packard) Lackey

Mary Lou was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts on September 9th, 1938 to Freeman Packard and Mary Nolan Packard. She was the first born of three children. In her youth she spent her Winters ice skating on the pond at the family camp house, building snowmen and making snow angels. During Summers at the camp the children would chase fireflies and row the boat around the pond for hours. She also enjoyed frequent visits to her Aunt Margie’s house in Cape Cod, visiting the harbor and the fisherman’s wharf, or playing in the ocean while anticipating her father’s clam bakes on the beach.

In her early teens her family packed up and moved to Houston, Texas. Her father had accepted a new engineering position with Anderson Clayton. They settled in West University buying a home on Purdue Street. She attended Lanier Jr High and graduated from Lamar High School in 1954. Mary Lou was a snazzy dresser and had striking good looks. She loved fast cars and had many suitors including a boy with a leather jacket and a fancy motorcycle named AJ Foyt. Prince's Hamburgers on Main was the popular hang-out for kids in the 50s and that is where she met the man she would marry, Clyde Lackey. She said that she really liked his car, his shy demeanor and his handsome appearance. Married June 5, 1957 they had three daughters Cheryl, Lisa and Stacey. They were married for 18 years. During their marriage they participated in many activities such as boat racing, bowling, riding motorcycles, card playing and girls softball. She was a great homemaker, cook and avid baker. She sewed matching dresses for her girls at Easter, was a Girl Scout Cookie Mom, a room mother and involved with the PTA. She was also the scorekeeper at the Windsor Village softball field.

Later in life her hobbies were collecting basketball cards and sports memorabilia, watching basketball games and NASCAR races. She knew all the NASCAR driver’s names and the numbers on their cars. Her favorite driver was Kurt Busch and a highlight in her life was when she got to meet him in person she said it was one of the exciting moments in her life! She also liked big cats and was able to see Siegfried and Roy in Las Vegas. Mary Lou always had a great love for dogs that began as a small child with a Terrier named Lux and an Irish Setter named Rusty. Over the years she would love many dogs including her first German Shepherd named Duke, her shepherds Jade and Onyx, and her rescue girl Amber just to name a few. She only had two jobs in her entire life. Her first job was at Kmart where she started as a checker and quickly promoted to a store supervisor. Her second job was maintenance coordinator at Anderson Greenwood (now Pentair) where she worked for over 37 years. She loved her job and all the guys in her department. It was during this time that she developed breast cancer. She was only 42 years old. She fought hard through chemo and radiation rarely taking any time off. She was tough not one to dwell on things she never complained or felt sorry for herself and she survived. In 2002 at age 60 her previous cancer metastasized into bone cancer. Once again, she fought hard and went through chemo and radiation and MRI's suffering severe bone deterioration and physical problems. She never complained about her pain and she continued to go to work every day of her life with stage 4 bone cancer. In 2015 she reluctantly retired. Shortly afterwards she suffered a stroke. She survived that too with no after effects but no longer able to live alone her house was sold and she moved in with her youngest daughter Stacey. She spent the last couple of years of her life sitting outdoors watching the animals play, listening to her talk radio programs, watching basketball and NASCAR with an occasional outing. She was loved and cared for by her daughters until the end.

Mary Lou's passing was preceded by Freeman G Packard (father), Mary Nolan Packard (mother), Freeman "Buzzy" Packard (brother). Survivors include Linda Jean Packard of Irvine, California (sister), daughters; Cheryl Lynne Stewart of Katy, Texas (daughter), Lisa Suzanne Lackey of Tomball, Texas (daughter), Stacey Lee Lackey of Richmond, Texas (daughter), Shawn Prentiss Stewart of Katy, Texas (grandson), Shawn Preston Stewart of Katy, Texas (great grandson).

2 Timothy 4:7

I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. And now the time has come for me to stop fighting and rest.