Lucy Inez Valenta

We are here today to honor someone who has touched so many lives with her warmth and compassion, who throughout the years has been our rock in a sea of constant trouble and, indeed, the thoughtful glue that gracefully joined the ties of fellowship and family among us. Lucy was there for us and now she is no more. As we face that harsh fact, we come together now to celebrate her life to preserve something of a reflection of the light and the love that she bestowed upon us so freely and willingly throughout her life. We remember the love that we will always have for her, a patient love that will never die or diminish but will only grow to carry us onward.

As we come to mourn our loss, and to grieve in this transition, we are bound here by a common thread of community, a circle of life. We are here to support one another and perhaps to gain a glimmer of spiritual awareness to carry with us in our hearts as we come to terms with loss and begin the process of healing.

To continue on, I would like to read a brief biography that recounts some of the moments that made Lucy's life: the joy, the pain, the victory, the loss, the laughter, the tears, the redemption, the tragedy, the deliverance and the struggle that led to the salvation. Please go along with me and walk down this path, to see something in Lucy's story, that is shared with each of our stories, that I am now honored to recount. As I take you along, remember your own walks with Lucy, the individual footprints that you took with her, the paths you made together, and take the time to share with others today and in the days and weeks to follow. As we embark this somber occasion, let us nonetheless rejoice in the affirmation of Lucy's glory in life and bear witness to her deliverance.

Lucy Inez Petty was born on July 19, 1924 to William Richard Petty and Annie Kelsey in Lott, Texas. Orphaned at 4, Lucy was raised by her maternal grandmother Cora Kelsey in Lott and her uncle Ruby Kelsey and aunt Ethel in Temple. Uncle Ruby was a truck farmer who sold fresh vegetables like squash and okra on the side of the road.

When Lucy was in junior high school, she played for the basketball team until suffering an appendicitis at about 14. After her illness she stopped attending school and began laboring in the blistering summer fields picking cotton in the heart of Texas during the bleakest days of the Great Depression.

Soon after the Japanese invasion of Pearl Harbor, Lucy and Dennis Daniel of Satin were married in late 1941. Dennis was already serving in the United States Marine Corps, but had returned home following an accident that led to a permanent disability in his hand. Dennis died before their oldest son Danny Daniel was born in 1943.

In downtown Lott, Lucy met her second husband Walter Kinard of Marlin who was then an ambulance driver working across the street from the post office. Walter noticed her picking up her mail and began crossing the street everyday to meet her.

Lucy then took an opportunity to work for the Santa Fe Railroad in Chicago as a switchboard operator along with her best friend and confidante Virgie Rogstad while Walter was in training at nearby Naval Station Great Lakes.

Lucy and Walter married in 1945 in San Antonio and soon gave birth to their first born Walter Allen. After living in San Antonio on Schley Avenue in Highland Park until about 1948, the young family moved to Fairfield near Dallas where Walter began work as a mortician. Lucy and the growing family lived in a two-story complex, occupying the second floor while the ground level contained Walter's place of business.

An accident occurred in which Walter Allen died tragically in 1949, and the family moved back to San Antonio to an abandoned church on Avondale on the city's southeast side. It was remarked later that Walter and his brothers climbed on the roof with a saw and removed the steeple, thus transforming the former place of worship into the family horne.

In the 1950's, The Kinard Family grew, and it grew again into a bustling family of 4 boys and 3 girls, including its very own set of twins in the middle: Danny, Darlene, Larry, Judy, John, Gary, and Betty. Lucy worked tirelessly to keep her family and home running, whether it was making hamburgers for lunch or taking an extra job to keep the lights on. She was variously employed at Sears-Roebucks in the customer service department and was a cashier at Hamm's Grocery Store on South Presa. The twins became child models in the Sears catalog.

The family moved in 1959 to Abilene briefly before returning due to a job offer falling through. The pecan trees that had been planted first on Avondale were dug up and moved to the new home on State Street in Abilene. When it was learned they were not staying, Lucy had the trees again hauled 250 miles to be replanted at Avondale where they still live to this day and must be, by now, 100 feet tall. She simply would not part with the trees that later provided pecan pies and other delicious confections for decades. Secret family recipes have been crafted around those pecans as the key ingredient to award-winning results.

Lucy and Walter divorced and Lucy remarried John Valenta of Shiner in 1976 in Seguin. The two had met at the Farmer's Daughter Dance hall. John was the son of Czech immigrants besides having been a sergeant of three wars.

In the late 1970's, Lucy became an accomplished interior decorator at Montgomery Wards. She acquired her skills from experience in furniture sales by arranging the show room furniture in creative ways. Lucy was soon sought after for her sharp eye in design.

Her and John moved to Kirby in 1978. Lucy was later employed as a bus driver for the Judson Independent School District. In addition, she drove for Boys Town orphanage and her church. Many of her grandchildren remember fondly attending Vacation Bible School at Kirby Baptist Church in the early 1980's every summer, riding on the bus, and corning back to grandma's house on Crown Lane to enjoy delicious chalupas topped with vine-ripened tomatoes.

A keen gardener, Lucy kept her family, friends, and neighbors abundantly supplied with fruits, pecans, and vegetables. Her favorite flower was the Larkspur, which seemed to grow wild around her garden enveloping the landscape every spring in profusions of airy white, blue, and lilac blooms. She also adored periwinkles, begonias, petunias, and moon flowers among others. Her St. Augustine lawn was alwavs well-manicured and was the lush playground of her grandchildren who did cartwheels and nose dives in piles of leaves during idyllic times around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Fiercely devoted to the liberal cause, Lucv celebrated the achievements of such exemplary progressive leaders as Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Elizabeth Warren. She often spoke fondly of how Roosevelt's New Deal made a personal difference in her life and afforded the opportunities that helped her rise from the hardscrabble life of rural Texas life in the late 1930’s.

A supportive member of the Kirby Baptist Church community, Lucy was a devout and true believer of the faith. Her examples of unwavering forgiveness and tolerance were a beacon of Christian virtue for her large and inclusive family. Lucy welcomed people from all walks of life to her table with open arms and was a constant purveyor of remarkably unconditional love and contagious joy. Whether it was to play dominoes or just chat about the weather, there was always a cold coke in the refrigerator or a glass of iced-tea waiting for anyone who would join in.

Lucy had a timeless sense of humor that spoke to her passion and further illustrated the wonder of a liberated woman who was raised on the farm who would come to find inner peace wherever she called home. She would often recount the innocent, all-knowing words of children who had unknowingly uttered some hidden truth, as it is said, "from the mouths of babes". Her laughter warmed the spirit of all who knew her.

As she has made that journey to an eternal reward, we celebrate her life and faith along with all the many hearts she touched, as one last time we are brought together in the spirit of hope, honoring her life and memory: Lucy our friend, our neighbor, our sister, and our beloved mother.