Lackey Rowe, husband of the Rev. Jean McKnight Rowe, died Dec. 8, 2024 of Alzheimer’s. He was born June 12, 1938 in Union City TN, the son of Lester Lackey Rowe Sr. and Helen Miller Rowe.
He grew up all over the south—Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi—but always returned to Memphis TN with his dog Red, a present on his 6th birthday, who lived 18 years. An only child, Lackey was given all the things most children think they want, like a pony, cars, attention and support. After a long string of schools, he graduated from Columbia Military Academy in Columbia TN.
After high school, Lackey joined the Marine Corps Reserves for eight years and trained at Parris Island SC. He attended Memphis State University, then attained a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Mississippi. After a stint in the Philippines as a math tutor in the Peace Corps, he returned to Ole Miss and earned a law degree in 1966. He had a reputation for his liberal stance on all matters political and/or controversial in Mississippi.
That year, he married Andromache Castanis. They had two daughters, Helen and Nicole.
He was admitted to the Mississippi Bar and hired as a staff attorney with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Jackson. As a civil rights lawyer, he tried cases all over the state, assisted by prominent lawyers from across the U.S. who came to work with the Lawyers Committee. Suddenly he was learning law from the best and brightest lawyers in the country and trying cases with their assistance because he was the only one on staff who was licensed to practice law in Mississippi.
Three days after his first day at work, he was in court challenging the discriminatory jury composition in a criminal case. In 1969, he joined the U.S. Equal Opportunities Commission, working in Memphis and St. Louis. Later employment included real estate and human resources director for Marriott Hotels in New Orleans, Minneapolis and Nashville, and human resources director at The Peabody Hotel in Memphis.
He was divorced in 1991 and in 1994 married Rev. Jean McKnight Rowe. They lived in Memphis until 2005, when they retired to Brevard NC, where he was active in the Unitarian Universalists of Transylvania County, the NAACP, and was an avid writer of letters to newspapers in Memphis and Brevard.
Lackey died with a huge debt of gratitude to lawyers who practiced in Mississippi in the 1960s and who are still fighting for racial equality. If his life stood for anything, it was “equal justice under the law” and abolishing racial discrimination. This is how he wanted to be remembered.
He is survived by his wife Jean; daughter Nicole Rowe Heroux; one granddaughter; one great-granddaughter; stepsons Michael J. Rickard (Julie Jeannine) and Kenneth C. Rickard (Amy Hobby); and two step-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his daughter Helen.
There will be a memorial service at UUs of Transylvania County and another at Neshoba UU Church in Memphis, dates to be determined.
Donations in his memory can be mailed to Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Attn: Development Department, 1500 K Street NW, Suite 900, Washington D.C. 20005.