LACY, William H. (Bill)

Griffith Mortuary, Kearny, Arizona Wednesday, July 25, 2012 William H. Lacy, 96, of Winkelman, AZ passed away peacefully on July 25, 2012 at his home in Winkelman, AZ. William Hughes Lacy was born the 7th son to a farming couple named Lela and Hal Hughes Lacy in Palestine, Texas in 1915. The family worked together and tried raising cattle in New Mexico when William (known as Bill) was four years old, but destiny took them back to Texas to try sharecropping until a serious draught ended that endeavor. In 1930 the Lacy family moved to Arizona to try farming again. In 1932, Bill worked with the Citizens Conservation Corps for almost two years and learned to be a heavy equipment operator. A 30-ton rock rolled onto his leg while he was working on a construction job to build a barge for a railroad track in Long Beach which turned out to be an opportunity in disguise. The doctor who treated him had released him to work too soon, which caused him to lose that job because he wasn’t able to operate the machinery, but later in life the same doctor was on the Board of Exam Physicians for the Navy when Bill signed up in 1941. The doctor remembered Bill and made it up to him by assigning him as a Second Class Petty Officer in the Sea Bees of the United States Navy. Bill served during WWII in Hawaii and operated a road grader in Pearl Harbor. The tragic memories of the fox holes tainted his desire to ever vacation in Hawaii in later years, however, but after the war he and several of his brothers stuck together and moved to California. Bill bartended for several months, then in 1946 he joined one of his brothers in the crusade to unionize the culinary workers. He was a Culinary Union Business Agent in San Fernando Valley until he transferred to Mojave and Bakersfield Local in 1955. While in San Fernando Valley, he met and married the love of his life, Ruth Estelle Lacy. In 1958, they moved to the Central Coast and Bill worked as a Business Agent for the Culinary Union Local 703 and was elected Executive Secretary/Treasurer in 1961. Ruth was one of three Office Staff who helped him improve the wages, holiday and vacation pay, and health benefits for the members of the culinary workers’ union. He retired in 1970 to move to Winkelman, Arizona, following his wife who moved to the town she was born in to care for Silas Valentine after his wife Mecie had passed away and he was in need of family care. Mecie and Silas Valentine raised Ruth, as well as her brother and sister, after her father had died when she was an infant and her mother died of Tuberculosis when she was only three years old. Mecie and Silas were her family. Bill and Ruth helped Silas with work and financing the Valentine Trailer Court and Bar and nursed and cared for Silas when he became too ill to work any longer. Silas passed away in 1973. Bill and Ruth enjoyed a happy life helping each other in every walk of life, from raising two wonderful daughters and loving their four grandchildren, to sharing occupations in culinary union crusades, bar and trailer park management, home improvement and resale speculations, and they always had fun together with family and friends. Ruth would prepare banquets of food for guests and customers and Bill and his brothers would always entertain with guitars and song. Ruth sadly developed Alzheimer’s in 2004 and Bill and their daughter Judie Bibbs nursed and cared for her until she passed away in February 2007. In August of 2007, their other daughter, Paulette Lacy, was distraught in losing half of her parents, so she retired from a State of California Administrative Assistant career and moved to Winkelman to care for Bill and relieve her sister as he was now in need of family care. The circle of life continues here in Winkelman, Arizona. Visitation: Thursday, August 2, 2012 from 8:30 to 9:30 A.M. at Griffith-Bulman Mortuary, 101 Johnston Dr., Kearny, AZ. Graveside Service: 10:00 A.M. Thursday, August 2, 2012 at Mountain View Cemetery, 300 Mountain View Dr., Hayden, AZ. With Pastor Dennis VanGrop officiating and military honors by the US Navy.