Irene Mildred (Gallant) Stewart-Lackey

Irene Stewart Lackey was born on Saturday, November 2, 1929, in Campton, New Hampshire, to Olive Blanch Shepard and Augustin Gallant. She has been a resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico since 1969. She departed this life on Monday, October 31, 2022, after a long debilitating battle with pulmonary fibrosis.

Her Mother died when Irene was less than two years old, and her father was not in her life very much. Her grandfather and grandmother, Charles and Malvina Shepard, raised her from about 11 years old, after she spent several years with her father’s family in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Irene graduated from Plymouth NH High School and continued on to receive a business degree from the Stenotype Institute in Boston.

After graduation she returned to Plymouth and worked as a legal secretary and paralegal for two prominent attorneys; one of whom later became the NH Attorney General and the other who received a lifetime appointment as a Supreme Court Justice on the Supreme Court of NH.

In Albuquerque, she donated much of her free time to VFW 401 Women’s Auxiliary and Women’s Auxiliary to the Military Order of the Cooties, where she served as an officer for many years.

She very much enjoyed dancing of all kinds and was a member of several line dance performing groups, the last being “Gotta Dance”, which performed all over the State of NM. The group was invited to and danced at the Lobos Game Half Time and won first place twice in the New Mexico Senior Olympics dance category and 2nd place twice. One of her groups competed in the Carolina Classics and all won plaques. She also took part in several line dance fests in California and Colorado which she totally enjoyed.

She is preceded in death by her second husband, Roy P. Stewart, and her son, Michael C. Spears.

She is predeceased by her loving husband, John F. “Jack” Lackey of The Montebello.

She is survived by her daughter, Suzanne Malone and husband Bill, and daughter, Karen Edwards and husband Gary, all of Albuquerque; seven grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.

The last few years of her life were spent at The Montebello on Academy, where she very much enjoyed spending time with her friends, whom she dearly loved.

Irene has requested no viewing and no services.