Lucy Kirk Moberley Oaks

Lucy Kirk Moberley “Memaw” Oaks left this earth on Saturday, June 28, 2025, due to complications from multiple myeloma. She was attended by three of her children and her son-in-law. She had celebrated her 90th birthday the month before, with all but four of her thirty descendants in attendance.

Lucy enriched the lives of Shelton Neville Moberley, Jr., and Jane Emison Roberts Moberley by coming to live with them on May 10, 1935, in Lexington, KY. She replaced in their affections her brother Shelton Neville “Buzz” Moberley, III, who preceded her in birth, and he never forgave her for it.

She related fond memories of her upbringing on a family-owned farm in Richmond, KY, where she spent her days climbing trees, walking the rafters in the tobacco barn high above the floor, wading in the nearby stream, and riding her Buzz’s horse to near exhaustion. Her father called her “Monkey” due to her tree-climbing prowess. When her parents divorced in 1945, Jane returned to the family home at 420 W. Second St. in Lexington to live with her mother, “E.” Lucy and E bonded immediately and enjoyed accompanying each other to the movies at the local theater, where there friends were able to locate them in the audience due to their shared very boisterous, raucous laughter.

She attended Cardome Academy in Georgetown, KY, and University High School. She spent her senior year at Henry Clay High School, Class of 1953, where she served as president of the Lexington Chapter of the Future Retailers Association, which honored her with the Salesmanship Award. She then enrolled in the University of Kentucky, where she joined the Kappa Delta Sorority in 1954.

Gifted with a superb alto voice, with her signature rendition of “Frankie & Johny,” she aspired to be a professional singer, which led her to audition for a performing group at the University of Kentucky called The Troupers. Among the auditors was William “Willie” Bryant Oaks, Jr., who was immediately smitten by the sultry chanteuse and voted to add her to the group. They soon formed a double act performing hillbilly songs, monologues, and recitations such as “Life Gits Teejus, Don’t It?” and “I Got Tears in My Ears.” They performed this act throughout their adult lives at various church functions.

On November 10, 1956, she and Willie eloped to New Albany, IN, accompanied by their mutual best friend, Cliff Randall, who ended up paying for the wedding. A month later, at her family’s Christmas celebration, E. apologized to Willie for not having gotten him any gifts, as she had such short notice of their marriage. He told her, “You’ve already given me the best gift: Lucy!” E. retorted, “We didn’t give her to you, you took her! And without asking, I might add!”

She graduated from the Class of 1957 with her Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work. After college, Willie joined the Air Force and moved to California for a required stint. This began a lifelong wanderlust for both of them, and over the years, they lived together in Kentucky, Ohio, California (thrice), Colorado, West Virginia (twice), Washington (six times!), Florida, Okinawa, Maryland, Belgium, and the United States, having visited every state in the Union.

Lucy was a featured soloist in several church choirs throughout the years, until she lost her hearing at the age of 39, which sadly ended her singing career. She was thrilled when her daughter showed an equal talent for song, and lived vicariously through her by attending all of her musical performances. She was especially proud when Deborah and her sibling Kevin sang together at SoulFood Fair Trade Emporium, which Kevin owned.

Memaw was also an accomplished actress, having debuted in the role of the cow in the Lexington Children’s Theatre production of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” founded by Lucille Little, and where her mother was the secretary to the board of directors. She continued to perform in college, notably in a production of “The Madwoman of Chaillot.” After marrying, she devoted herself to raising her five children while relocating more than a dozen times for Willie’s career. She once said, “I never thought I’d have children, but you all became my life and the most important thing to me.”

She returned to college at the age of 49 and earned her Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology from Bowie State College in Maryland. Her professors and fellow students encourage her to publish her thesis, entitled “Is There a Relationship Between Menopause and Divorce?” When the family relocated to Renton, WA, she put her degree to use through her role as a Parent Educator for Bellevue Community College. She became a noted speaker throughout the Puget Sound region for her presentations on parenting issues and “Birth Order and How It Affects Personality Development.” She also had a private counseling practice and was instrumental in starting and developing the Social Services Ministry for the Puget Sound Baptist Association.

In 1989, she became the Therapeutic Program Director at ACAP Child and Family Services in Auburn, WA, where she developed a program in a child care center for abused and at-risk children. She worked with DSHS clients, gave talks on child abuse, taught APPLE Parenting Classes to high-risk parents, testified in court cases, mentored and trained child care workers on how to deal with abused children, and established support programs for biological and foster parents.

She also developed a program that worked with potential at-risk parents who were enrolled in the regular child care center, helping them to avoid involvement with DSHS. In 1994, she was promoted to Associate Director and placed in charge of the programs and staff of the agency. At her retirement party in 1996, they presented her with a trophy that read, “Lucy Oaks, ACAP’s Leading Lady.”

She returned to the stage later in life, appearing in several productions for Valley Community Players in Renton, WA, and several other Puget Sound regional theaters. Some of her favorite roles were Ethel in “On Golden Pond,” Ouiser in “Steel Magnolias,” Miss Skillon in “See How They Run,” Miss Blacklock in “A Murder Is Announced,” Lucy in “The Women,” Betty in “The Foreigner,” Lila in “Talking With the Moon”, Mom in “True West,” and her signature role as Glory in “Grace and Glory.” She was honored with several Community Theater Oscars from VCP, including Best Character Actress and Best Actress.

After retiring, she and Willie traveled extensively, visiting numerous foreign countries, including Russia, India, England, Thailand, China, Bali, Fiji, Nepal, Tibet, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Slovakia, and Hungary, all of which were well documented by her with video and scrapbooks by Willie.

She joined the University of Kentucky Alumni Association in 1998 and became a lifelong Wild Cats fan, enthusiastically supporting them dressed in shirts of their signature blue and bearing their logo. She was also an avid Seahawks fan, a proud 12th Man.

It was also in this year that she purchased Buzz’s share in the ancestral home, which was by then broken into four rental apartments. She and Willie spent the next several months camping in the house, rewiring it, painting, and updating the apartments. She became a savvy landlord like her mother and grandmother before her, and was delighted when her son, Michael, expressed interest in moving into one of the apartments. He later became her resident manager for seven years, and she enjoyed visiting him frequently, enlightening him about her side of the family, and visiting several ancestral homes in the area. Sadly, after Michael returned to Seattle, she was unable to maintain the house and was forced to sell it.

Lucy also served as Youth Director, Church Training Director, Sunday School Teacher, Vacation Bible School Teacher, Special Studies Teacher, Board Member, and in other capacities within the Southern Baptist churches wherever they lived.

Lucy was a powerhouse and a force of nature with joie de vivre unmatched in her time. She had hoped to live to 100, and would have done so had illness not claimed her too soon. No one who met her ever forgot her, and she had an enormous circle of friends and loved ones across the globe.

As the matriarch of the family, Memaw has left an enormous hole in the lives of her survivors, who include her living children and their spouses: William “Bryant” Oaks (Priscilla Shaw), Richard Alan Oaks (Patricia Pringle), Michael Oaks (hopelessly available), and Deborah Dinelli Oaks (Philip Bennett); ten grandchildren and their spouses (plus one step-grandson), plus eight great-grandchildren. She is predeceased by her husband, William Bryant Oaks, Jr., and her son, Kevin Alexander Oaks (Anita “Makia” Ensley).

We will miss her love, her shelter, her laughter, her talents, and her indomitable spirit. Rest In Power, Memaw!