Longtime Lakeside resident William A. “Bill” Locy II died in a Guadalajara hospital on July 25. He was 88.
Born May 4, 1922, in Chicago, Illinois, Locy was the older of two sons born to Frances E. and Bessie J. Locy. He spent his high school years at Kemper Military School in Booneville, Missouri and attended Kilgore College in Kilgore, Texas. His studies were interrupted when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. He volunteered for the military and was admitted as an officer into the U.S. Army. He commanded an infantry rifle company in the Pacific and survived two beachfront landings: one on the island of Mori Tai in the Dutch East Indies and the other on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. He spent two years in constant combat in New Guinea and the Philippines. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. He transferred to the 82nd Airborne Division after World War II. He retired from the military in 1951 with the rank of major.
Locy enjoyed a long career in real estate in Longview, Texas and retired to Ajijic with his second wife, Isabel, just before the first Chili Cookoff more than 30 years ago. Since Locy was one of the few Texans around at that time, Chili Cookoff founder Morley Eager drafted him to be one of the first judges. Isabel passed away several years ago.
Locy was an avid tennis player and a sailor. He repaired video tapes for the Lake Chapala Society library for several years and was an original member of the Ham Radio Club and involved with the Navy League.
He married his long time tennis partner, Saeko Burger-Umezu, in 2003. She died last fall after a year-long battle with cancer.
Locy is survived by his younger brother, Jack A Locy, of Austin, Texas and his two children, Judith Locy Wright of Lawrence, Kansas and William Albert Locy III of Largo, Florida. He had four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Bill had become a familiar site the last few years, zipping around on his Honda motor scooter. He will be greatly missed by his family and friends.
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