Len Lacy

John Len Lacy, usually known as Len Lacy (September 8, 1900 – June 7, 1998), was a prominent farmer, cattleman, landowner, and businessman who served from 1964 to 1968 as a Democratic member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from Castor in Bienville Parish in northwestern Louisiana.^[1]

Len and Sallie Lacy House in Castor, Louisiana

Graves of Len and Sallie Lacy at New Ebenezer Cemetery in Castor

Biography

Lacy was born into a pioneer Bienville Parish family in the Ebenezer community south of Castor on the night of the deadly Galveston tidal surge. His grandfather was one of the first educators in Bienville Parish. His father was Henry Rufus Lacy, Sr. (1870–1956); his brother, Henry Rufus Lacy, Jr. (1902–1969), was a Castor merchant known throughout the area as Rufus Lacy.^[2]

Prior to his legislative service, Lacy was for thirty-three years a member of the elected Bienville Parish School Board, headquartered in the parish seat of Arcadia. He served from January 6, 1931, until 1964, when he assumed his legislative seat.

Lacy was the last person to have represented only Bienville Parish in the legislature. Until 1968, each parish regardless of its population had been guaranteed a seat in the 105-member Louisiana House. Bienville was thereafter combined with neighboring Jackson Parish. Edgerton L. "Bubba" Henry, a Democrat from Jonesboro, the seat of Jackson Parish, defeated Lacy in the 1967 primary, and in 1972, Henry began an eight-year stint as the Speaker of the Louisiana House. Democrat Jamie Fair of Castor succeeded Henry in the seat in 1980 and served a single term until 1984.^[1]

In 1970, The Shreveport Times named Lacy one of the most influential persons in Bienville Parish because many who sought guidance in business or politics came to him for advice. His great public interest was in rural development.^[2]

Family and death

Lacy was married to the former Sallie Williams (June 23, 1905 – January 12, 1999),^[3] who succeeded her husband as a school board member, having served from August 1964 until her retirement on December 14, 1972.^[4]

The Lacys had three daughters, Doris Lacy Barnes (born August 24, 1925), the widow of Orrice R. Barnes (1921–1996),^[5] an Idaho native and the former Western Auto dealer in Newellton in Tensas Parish in northeastern Louisiana; Billie L. Ainsworth and her husband, William G. Ainsworth, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Carolyn L. Carrow and husband, Guy E. Carrow, of Monroe. There were six Lacy grandchildren, residing as of 1998 in five states: J. Russell Barnes, MD (born 1952), of Vicksburg, Mississippi, David Lacy Barnes, M.D. (born November 11, 1954), of Monroe; Terry Ainsworth Evans of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Martha Ainsworth Healey of Edmond, Oklahoma, Stephen C. Carrow of Tulsa, and T. Scott Carrow of Jacksonville, Florida. He had ten great-grandchildren.^[2]

Lacy died in a Monroe hospital. He and his wife are interred at the New Ebenezer Cemetery south of Castor.^[2]

References