Harold Edgar Lacy

Our Dad, Harold Edgar Lacy, 70, of Cowiche passed away Oct 7, 2010. Harold was born on July 30, 1940 in Newport, Arkansas to Lawrence E. Lacy and Dorothy L. Lacy. He moved with his family to the Yakima Valley as a young child of 3, with the large exodus of workers from Arkansas to the Yakima Valley to work in the agriculture fields and orchards. His first home in the Yakima area was in the labor camp off Ahtanum Road, now known as Ahtanum Youth Park. Eventually, his family settled in the Cowiche area where Harold attended school, married, and raised his family living the rest of his life in the same house.

As a young man, he, like so many young people of that generation, went to work at an early age. Life was the education for Harold. He had a deep respect for hard work. His career started in the orchards, working for various orchardists, and later changed to the logging industry. Harold was part of the brotherhood of loggers. Dad loved working in the woods. He took pride in his logging skills, and could talk for hours about logging. When the logging industry declined, forcing many loggers to look elsewhere for work, Harold found a new career at the Highland School District, where he retired in 2005. Throughout his life, he loved hunting, fishing, and guns, and anything to do with history and war movies. Many of his favorite memories were from Lake O’Sullivan, water skiing and perch fishing.

Harold married Sue Mayer in 1959. Together they had two children, Tami and Tim. He later married Sandy Hill in 1972, which brought another son, James (Jim) Lacy, into our family. Dad instilled in us the love of the outdoors and the woods. He taught us the meaning of hard work and honesty, albeit sometimes the hard way. Many times, our punishment for a “slip-up” was “getting” to pick rocks out of the garden. His garden was his pride and joy. He spent many hours tending to his chickens and his garden. He truly believed that one needed to break a sweat in his life to appreciate it.

Having parents from the depression years and born at the end of the depression taught Dad to be frugal, and frugal he was, except when it came to his vehicles. He loved new cars and trucks. One of his favorites was his purple Road Runner with the 8-track cassette player, listening to Black Sabbath, CCR and mixing it up with a little Hank Williams Jr. and Waylon Jennings.

The birth of his grandchildren brought new pleasures and new hobbies. He gave them rides on the riding lawn mower, babysat, watched their sporting events, snuck pop and candy to them against their parents’ wishes, and watched them grow into young adults. He was so proud of his grandson Brady away at college, and bragged about him to anyone who would listen. He especially loved to watch his grandson Trent play baseball, football and basketball. He was always the proud Grandpa, yelling the loudest in the stands for Trent, and made it to most of the home games. Grandparents are for spoiling the grandchildren and Dad was no exception, always doling out a little pocket money to his grandkids. During his retirement, he watched Fox News and absorbed it. You didn’t have to watch the news, you could count on Dad to recite it with a little Fox-slant, word for word. He loved to learn and loved to talk to people. He enjoyed his outings to Costco, Fred Meyers, Safeway, Bi-Mart and the gun shop, talking to all, sharing a Fox News update, and bragging about his family.

Above all, Dad loved his children and grandchildren, and could always be counted on to be there whenever you needed a shoulder to lean on, or a few words of wisdom. We wish there were just one more day to spend with you, Dad. You left us too soon. Dad and Grandpa, thank you for all you were. We love you and will miss you every day.

Harold was preceded in death by his parents, Lawrence and Dorothy. He is survived by his sister Barbara Rust, by his daughter Tami Douglass and her family (Steve, Brady and Trent), by his son Tim Lacy and his family (Katy, Wade, Tricia and Wade’s two children), and by his son Jim Lacy and his family (Lisa and Trevor).

A memorial service will be held for Harold at Keith and Keith Ninth Avenue Chapel on Wed, 10/13 at 11:00am. To share a memory of Harold, please visit www.keithandkeith.com.