By HDN Staff
CHESTER Lucy C. Lakey, 79, died Monday, April 23, 2001 at a Chester hospital due to cancer.
Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Friday at the Chester United Methodist Church. Burial will follow in the Chester Cemetery.
Lakey was born May 16, 1921 to Arthur and Mary (Milne) Morrison on the family homestead near Mount Lily in the Sweet Grass Hills north of Chester. She grew up on the farm and was educated at Laird Country School.
She met Troy W. Lakey at a Whitlash dance and they were married Oct. 12, 1939.
They made their home on a ranch in the Sweet Grass Hills. They began raising registered Hereford cattle in 1947 and named their place the Breed Creek Hereford Ranch. They purchased the ranch in 1957 from his father and bought two neighboring ranches in the 1960s and early '70s. They sold their operation in 1979 and retired. They moved to a new home in Chester in 1980.
Over the years, she was active in the Whitlash Presbyterian Church, Whitlash School activities and community card parties. She and her husband also assisted with Liberty County 4-H programs and were members of Marias Hereford Breeders Association. She raised a large garden and taught sewing. She also took a course in upholstery and did several projects on the ranch.
Lakey enjoyed crocheting, sewing, knitting, quilting, canning, baking and dancing. She never played horseshoes, but was made an honorary member of the Liberty Leaners Horseshoe Club.
She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Troy Lakey; sisters, Kathleen, Mary, Lily, Mabel and Violet; brothers, James, Arthur, Francis and John.
Survivors include her son, Tom Lakey of Great Falls; daughter, Betty Zorn of Butte; sister, Margaret Sarrazin of Clyde Park; sisters-in-law, Ethel Rasmussen and Irene Mattson of Chester, Gladys Morrison of Great Falls, and Virginia Morrison of Davenport, Wash.; special friend, Jay Nash of Chester; six grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; numerous nieces and nephews.
Arrangements are by Rockman Funeral Chapel, Chester.
