Esther Lacy Flower

Flower, Esther Lacy
Long-time Valley resident Esther Lacy Flower passed peacefully in her sleep on Monday, September 30, in Livermore, CA, two months shy of her ninety-sixth birthday. Born in 1917 in upstate New York, Esther was the third of four daughters of Frank Howard Lacy and Clara Mabel Lacy. Esther and her sisters grew up on the Lacy family farm outside Poughkeepsie, NY, where Esther developed the love for the outdoors that remained with her for her entire life. As a young woman in the 1930s, Esther and two girlfriends drove alone from New York to California and back in order to see the West. Esther attended St. Lawrence University and the Katherine Gibbs School. Following school, Esther worked at Vassar College and then at General Electric in Schenectady, NY. There Esther met Bob Flower, with whom she shared a passion for canoeing, camping, hiking, and skiing, which they pursued together on weekend trips in the Adirondacks. Bob and Esther wed in 1944 and would be married for over sixty years before Bob's passing in 2005. Together they raised four sons - Dick, Bill, Terry, and Jack - moving to Arizona in 1960. Weekends were most often spent outdoors - picnicking and camping and exploring Arizona - and summer vacations were spent visiting the national parks of the west. Esther was an avid bridge player, which she learned as a very young girl, she and a sister partnering with their parents to play during evenings on the farm. The wife of an engineer and mother to four more, Esther was the quickest with numbers of the bunch. Esther moved to California in 2011 to be closer to her sons. To her last days, Esther was most happy when she was outdoors with family. She spent her final evenings sitting outside with sons on the deck at her residence in Livermore, enjoying a warm September breeze. Esther was blessed with incredible optimism and a tremendously positive attitude. She will be greatly missed. Esther is survived by sons Bill of Livermore, CA, Terry (Sue) of Vancouver, WA, and Jack (Paula) of Reno, NV, by granddaughters Melissa, Stephanie, and Julie, and by nine nieces and nephews. Esther was preceded in death by her parents Frank and Mabel Lacy, sisters Betty, Evelyn, and Doris, her husband Bob, and by her eldest son Dick.