Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Lucy Cabe

Born Sara Jane Lockett, 90, passed away peacefully in her sleep on September 27, 2005, at her residence at Edgemere Retirement Community in Dallas, Texas.

Lucy was born on March 10, 1915, in Salt Lake City, Utah, to the late Charles Clay Lockett and Jane Clabaugh Lockett.

She was preceded in death by beloved husband Harold Hutchison Cabe of Gurdon, and Little Rock, who passed away in 1984.

She is survived by her sons, Thomas (Tom) Cabe and wife, Cindy Bass Cabe, and Charles (Sandy) Cabe, all of Dallas, Texas, by her sister, Elizabeth (Bis) Lockett Lord of St. Louis, Missouri, and her granddaughter Christen Lee Cabe of Austin, Texas.

In addition she is survived by nephews Roger E. Lord and Stephen L. Lord, and niece Lisa Lord Gough, all of St. Louis, Missouri. Additionally she is survived by niece Ann Cook Slicker of Dallas, Texas, niece Lucille Trotter Cook of Texarkana, Texas, niece Marianne Cabe Long of Tyler, Texas and nephew, Charles L. Cabe of Gurdon.

Until she moved to Dallas where she attended Highland Park Methodist Church, she was a faithful member of First United Methodist Church of Little Rock for 23 years. Prior to that she was organist and choir director for 27 years at the First United Methodist Church of Gurdon.

Her family moved to Denver, Colo., when she was two, and to St. Louis, Mo., when she was six. Named Sara Jane after her mother, her classmates preferred calling her "Lucy" referring to the character in the children's poem "Lucy Lockett." She chose to adopt the nickname and has been known as Lucy ever since.

Aside from her family, music was her first love. She studied piano from the age of eight and had a beautiful soprano voice. She attended and was graduated from John Burroughs High School in St. Louis in 1932, and was subsequently honored with the Outstanding Alumna Award in 1999. She attended Washington University in St. Louis for one year, and completed college at the University of Arizona at Tucson, where she studied French and voice.

In 1940 she met and married the man who changed her life, Harold Cabe. She moved to Gurdon, Arkansas, in the heart of timber country, where Harold ran the Gurdon Lumber Company. She and Harold lived in Gurdon for 35 years, where they were both pillars of the community, and in 1975, after Mr. Cabe sold the lumber business, they moved to Little Rock.

Lucy took great joy in enriching the lives of others and will forever be remembered for her love of family, music and life. She gave much to her community in terms of her time, talent and resources. She was a lifetime supporter of the Arts, and her community where she was the recipient of numerous honors and awards.

Arkansas recognized its treasure in Lucy. In 1971 she was one of the original appointees to the state Arts and Humanities Council. For her work with musical and volunteer groups, she was honored as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Woman of the Year in 1986. In 1993 she received the Arkansas Arts Council's Lifetime Achievement Award and the Arts and Humanities Council's Ed Handlin Memorial Award for Outstanding Individual Contribution to the Arts.

Lucy was an honorary life member of the Arkansas Symphony, the Community Theatre of Little Rock and Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts. She was involved in every step of the formation of the Arkansas Opera Theatre, which subsequently evolved into the Wildwood Park. She supported and was honored by Wildwood with the 625-seat Lucy L. Cabe Festival Theatre on the grounds.

She was named by the Arkansas Times as Philanthropist of the year, and in 1999 was honored as Easter Seal's Arkansan of the Year.

A memorial service to celebrate the life of Lucy Lockett Cabe were held in the sanctuary at Highland Park Methodist Church, on the SMU campus, at 10 am Saturday, October 1, 2005. The service was conducted by Rev. Bill Smith. She was interred, with her husband Harold, in the family Columbarium at Sparkman/Hillcrest in Dallas. Family and friends are invited after the service to the home of Tom and Cindy Cabe.

Memorial donations may be made to Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts in Little Rock, or to your personal branch of Easter Seals.