1912 – 2003

AUBURN – Abby Lacy of Auburn, formerly of Altoona, Fla., died in her sleep Tuesday, June 3, in Auburn. She was 91.

Born May 17, 1912, in Cincinnati, Ohio, she was the daughter of Pennina Newsome and Herman Bryant. She was raised in Cincinnati. She loved reading and learning, and after graduating from Western College in Oxford, Ohio, became a teacher.

Abby also loved the outdoors and spent six summers as a camp counselor at Friendly Inn Camp, where she met her husband, Bill Lacy. Abby and Bill married in 1937 and spent two years as administrators of a school for disadvantaged children in Aiken, S.C. They returned to Ohio and lived there until they retired to Florida, first to Hawthorn at Leesburg, then to Lakeview Terrace in Altoona.

Bill’s work for Bell Telephone Co. necessitated frequent moves, and Abby’s organizational skills allowed her to successfully transplant the family many times. Though parenting and housekeeping consumed much of her energy, she always took time to give service to others and was an active member of her church, PTA and League of Women Voters. Abby also served on the local school board and opened her home to students from foreign countries.

After retiring to Florida she continued volunteer work, study and travel. Even as a 90-year-old, Abby was still a teacher, reading to preschoolers and to a blind woman across the hall.

Abby was preceded in death by her husband and two siblings, Richard Bryant and Carol Ustick.

Survivors include two sons, Dick Lacy of Wilmington, Del., and Paul Lacy of Auburn; one daughter, Nina Bennett of Boulder, Colo.; and nine grandchildren.


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