Margaret Ann Smith Lacey died on October 14th, 2020 at Friends Fellowship Community, from complications associated with dementia. She was born on July 9th, 1936, on a farm outside What Cheer, Iowa. Her family was active in Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) Society of Friends. She graduated from Scattergood Friends School in 1954, and Earlham College in 1958, where she received a Bachelor’s Degree in English. In August of that same year, she married Paul Lacey, beginning a loving, dynamic— and frequently noisy—partnership that would last more than fifty-eight years.
Their first two years of married life were spent in
Cambridge, MA, where Paul completed his doctorate in English literature at
Harvard, and Margaret worked as a librarian. In 1960, Paul accepted a teaching
position at Earlham and they moved to Richmond, Indiana. Excepting stays in London,
Cape Cod, Maine and Ireland, Richmond would be their home for the rest of their
lives. They raised three children: Mary, Patrick, and James.
Once all the kids were in school, Margaret began writing, eventually
publishing short stories, essays, and poems in The Christian Science
Monitor, Ellery Queen’s Mystery, The Boston Globe, Iowa Woman, The Mississippi
Valley Review and others. In 1992 Stormline Press published her novel Silent
Friends: A Quaker Quilt, a collection of stories following three generations
of a Quaker family living on an Iowa farm.
Throughout her life, Margie made things: stories, bookcases,
quilts, delicious and nourishing meals. She reveled in using her DIY skills,
especially if the task required devising a solution with bits and pieces she
could find lying around, or using one of her beloved hand tools, salvaged from the family farm. In 1963 she
and Paul bought the old house that would be their home for the next fifty-two
years, and Margie’s skill set quickly established her as the primary caretaker.
Of her many creations, the home she made, with and for her loved ones, was one
of her finest. She and Paul filled the house with an eclectic mix of art, music
and literature, encouraging their children to explore their own interests and
ignore the snobbery of others. Three daily newspapers and the nightly news helped
the kids to emulate their parents’ curiosity and political engagement. Margie
and Paul also introduced their kids to a variety of cuisines, encouraging them
to become adventurous cooks and eaters. Shared meals, around the world and at
the home table, were one the central joys of family life. This vibrant home
became a haven to their children, extended family, friends, and generations of
college students.
Margie and Paul remained active in civil rights, peace and other social justice causes throughout
their lives. Though her Quaker roots remained a rich source of inspiration to
her, in her later years Margie became a self-described
agnostic/Nature-worshipper. Her daily walks with the dog included visits to
favorite trees, which she would greet with hugs.
She was, above all else, excellent company: a witty, well-read, thoughtful conversationalist, and an empathetic listener. We will miss her terribly.
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