Former Henderson broadcaster, state senator and mayor Henry G. Lackey died Thursday morning, Feb. 5, at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center with his family by his side, according to an obituary shared by his daughter Kate Lackey Broeckling. He was 78.
“It’s like losing a family member,” longtime former WSON news director Bill Stephens said Thursday. “He was my employer, but he was never my boss. When we said, ‘We’re the home team,’ we meant it.”
“I’ll never forget when I first came to town in ’84 (to work as WSON), the first thing he said was, ‘Where are going to live?’” Stephens said. Lackey told him, “You’re not going live in Evansville or Newburgh or Sturgis or Owensboro. You’re going to live in Henderson. You’re going to report on Henderson, you’re going to live in Henderson. Best thing I ever did.”
“Mayor Lackey was certainly a beloved figure in our community,” current Mayor Brad Staton said in a statement. “From broadcasting to aviation to service and leadership, he left his mark in a significant way. We will miss him, and I want to extend my heartfelt condolences to his many friends and family throughout our city.”
“He was the voice of Henderson: On the radio, at City Hall, in the Kentucky Senate,” Henderson County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider declared in a statement.
Born to broadcast
Henry Grider Lackey was born May 18, 1947, in Henderson to the late Hecht S. Lackey Sr. and Rebecca Woodruff Lackey.
Henry followed in the footsteps of his father in both broadcasting and politics.
Hecht came to Henderson in 1941 to launch WSON; two of his brothers operated radio stations in Paducah and Hopkinsville, and all three brothers—like their father—became mayors of their respective cities, with Hecht Lackey serving as mayor of Henderson from 1953 through 1961 along with other roles in state government.
Henry Lackey began working for the station in the mid-1950s at about age of 9, delivering bills. “A stamp was three cents and they paid me two cents,” saving a penny for each bill, he recalled in 1976. By age 12, the younger Lackey had his own radio program.
Born with a broadcaster’s voice, he was also an avid singer, lending his voice at the Presbyterian Church and other venues.
A 1965 graduate of Henderson High School, Lackey earned his bachelor’s degree in telecommunications from the University of Kentucky and his master’s in broadcast management from Michigan State University. Henry Lackey worked briefly in television in Lexington, Dayton and Louisville before returning to Henderson in late 1971 to manage his father’s radio stations here.
Lackey bought WSON and sister station WKDQ from his father in 1979.
He arranged for the sale of the two stations in 1984, but broadcast regulators determined that WSON had too much overlap with another AM station owned by the buyer.
So Lackey revamped WSON into a local news and sports station, broadcasting Henderson County High and University of Kentucky football and basketball games, St. Louis Cardinals baseball and Tennessee Titans football games along with oldies music.
“He was an innovator, is what comes to my mind,” Stephens said. “When we moved from Zion Road because of the sale of ’KDQ, we had to kind of rebuild ’SON from the ground up, from the music programming to public affairs; we took Speak Up from once a week to a daily affair with call-ins (from listeners), which isn’t the norm” for public affairs broadcasting.
When the National Weather Service relocated its regional office from Evansville to Paducah and left this area without its own weather radar for several years, Stephens said Lackey “invested his own money in a proprietary weather radar that gave us the ability to at least have more local control and ability to monitor storms as they were coming in.”
An avid private aviator, Lackey flew his personal plane to survey flooded areas for news coverage; take winners of radio station promotions to NASCAR races and other destinations; and sometimes hurry patients to medical facilities, according to Stephens.
Lackey and his staff built WSON into what the Kentucky Broadcasters Association called “one of Kentucky’s most successful community radio stations.” At a time when many AM radio stations were little more than afterthoughts, WSON managed annual sales of a half-million dollars by 2007, the station’s Greg Busby said in 2015 as part of Lackey’s induction into the Henderson Alumni Hall of Fame.
In addition to WSON’s award-winning news broadcasts and public affairs programming, Lackey’s most ambitious undertaking was the hours-long Friday night coverage of County High football games with Leo Peckenpaugh, a former star quarterback at Henderson County High and Western Kentucky University and one-time sports editor of The Gleaner. WSON’s coverage grew to rival that of major college game broadcasts.
“It was something in my lifetime that I’ll look back on with Henry and always have a smile on my face,” Peckenpaugh said Thursday. “He didn’t know that much about sports but he was very passionate about the Colonels and how they won.”
Lackey and “Peck” first teamed up in 1976, following the merger of the city and county school systems—and most controversially, the merger of City High into County High.
“There were really some upset people in the city who wanted no part of that,” Peckenpaugh said. “They were a very proud community.”
But that first year, the merged schools’ football team advanced all the way to the state championship game, with WSON broadcasting games along the way. With Lackeys’ boundless enthusiasm, “He gradually brought that (City High Flash) crowd around to be Colonels,” Peckenpaugh said. “It was hard for them. It’s still hard.”
As the years moved on, WSON’s football coverage grew more elaborate, including the introduction of “Football Fanny,” the pregame feature that would look ahead to key games around the region as “Fanny” informed listeners about “who’s gonna win and by how much.”
“I’d roll my eyes a lot times when he added some new intricacy,” Peckenpaugh said. But fans loved it—and, he noted, “There was a sponsor for each of them.”
“He was very, very professional,” Peckenpaugh said. “His broadcasts were just right on cue. It was good stuff. I know the community appreciated that. People would come up to me all the time and say, ‘I listen to you guys,’ and then they usually would come up with a suggestion.
“For a guy who just wasn’t a sports guy … It was amazing to watch him. I tutored him a little bit. We didn’t even know each other when we started that venture. Then we turned out to be best friends. Sad time. Our community will certainly miss him.”
“As a young sports reporter at The Gleaner, I spent a lot of Friday nights sitting a few seats away from Henry in high school football press boxes, and the enthusiasm and passion for Henderson County High School and its students that came through in his game broadcasts always impressed me,” Schneider said. “He went all out to make young people and their families feel special and appreciated.”
A hall of fame career
Lackey served more than 20 years on the board of the Kentucky Broadcasters Association, including serving as its chairman in 1981. Like his father and his uncles Pierce Lackey of Paducah and F.E. “Dutch” Lackey of Hopkinsville, Henry Lackey was inducted into the KBA’s Kentucky Mic Hall of Fame, the association’s highest honor.
Lackey sold WSON in December 2010 to broadcaster Ed Henson of Louisville.
“They’re very much cut from the same cloth,” Stephens said of Henson and Lackey, who each grew up in broadcasting families. “He could have sold it to anybody. He sold to Ed because he knew Ed would keep us on the right track, and that’s what Ed has done, kept us committed to the news and weather. I’m so thankful.”
“Henry and I met in a Kentucky Broadcasters Association convention” in the 1970s, Henson said Thursday. “He and I were kind of the young guys; we’d sit in the back of the room. Henry had a gift to make me laugh at the most inopportune times.” They might be at a serious meeting “and I can’t be laughing and I can’t look at Henry because I’ll start laughing. It happened in a congressman’s office one time …
“He was a big personality, obviously. Yet he would go in and work on the (control) board, entry level position. He was very well respected across the state.”
“Henry and I were very close,” Henson said. “I have a lot of respect for Henry. Henry loved Henderson; that was very obvious from conversations with Henry over 50 years …
“It’s an honor to carry on the tradition that the Lackeys started.”
Another love: politics
Aside from broadcasting, Lackey had a lifelong interest in politics. He once recalled campaigning as a youngster on bicycle for both his father and state Sen. Bill Sullivan.
Lackey served two terms as a Henderson city commissioner from 1978 through 1981. When Sullivan announced that he would retire from his Senate seat, Lackey in 1981 won a three-way race against fellow Henderson businessmen Paul Herron Jr. and John Hall to succeed him, serving in the Senate from 1982 to 1987.
“Like his father, he was probably a victim of his political convictions,” longtime Gleaner government reporter Frank Boyett wrote. “While senator he co-sponsored legislation that mandated use of seat belts and stiffened penalties for driving while intoxicated. Those were the right things to do, but there was a harsh political backlash,” costing him to lose a bid for re-election to Hall.
“Unlike his father, though, Henry came back to fight again,” Boyett continued. “He defeated Hall four years later by 688 votes. In 1994 he attempted to unseat U.S. Rep. Tom Barlow, but was given a thrashing, which made him say he was probably hanging up his walking shoes.
“He didn’t, of course.
“He was elected mayor in 2002 and oversaw several controversial decisions, such as institution of an occupational tax that shored up flagging city finances and passing a no-smoking ordinance” that Lackey called “the strongest (anti-smoking) ordinance in this state and maybe one of the best in the whole country.”
“There was a political price to pay for those decisions; he came in third in the primary when he ran for re-election in 2006,” Boyett wrote.
“I’m really sorry to hear about Henry,” Boyett said Thursday. “He could be a little full of himself at times, but at heart he was a good person and he did what thought best for city of Henderson, and paid a price for that.”
Lackey had had even greater ambitions; Boyett said former Gleaner editor Ron Jenkins, an avid political observer, believed Lackey wanted to become governor, which did not come to pass.
Still, Boyett said, “He went far. A lot farther than a lot of people.”
“His work ethic was also something I admired about Henry,” Schneider said. “While he was mayor, a typical day might entail work on radio station business all morning, including being the primary ad salesman in many instances, prepare interviews for his football pre-game show in the afternoon, then tackle whatever city issues needed his attention, and then be a husband, father and friend with whatever moments he had left before his head hit the pillow.
“Very few people ever spent more energy promoting, encouraging and helping Hendersonians than Henry.”
His later life
Lackey relocated to Lexington, serving as commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Charitable Gaming from 2008 to 2010, overseeing the licensing and regulation of more than 800 charities that engage in charitable gaming.
A private pilot with more than 7,500 hours of flight time, he in 2010 became deputy commissioner for the Kentucky Department of Aviation.
In 2016, Lackey became president and CEO of the Kentucky Broadcasters Association, retiring in 2018.
“In every sense of the word, Henry was a broadcaster,” Chris Winkle, the KBA’s current president and CEO, said in a statement. “He loved the broadcast industry and especially the Kentucky Broadcasters Association. He never met a stranger and you could always count on his larger-than-life smile and personality. Henry was a dear friend and mentor to so many. He will be deeply missed and remembered well beyond his time on this earth.”
“Henry Lackey was a dear friend of mine and of our family,” local community leader Dale Sights said in a statement. “He made a lasting impact on both our community and our commonwealth.
“Following in the footsteps of his father, Hecht Lackey, he operated and expanded WSON, served as a progressive mayor of our town, and was later elected to the Kentucky state Senate,” Sights noted. “In my view, he served with distinction. Only a few days before his passing, he called to talk mostly about Kentucky Wildcat basketball, which he revered like many of us. Beyond his love for his family and his dedication to public service, he felt a deep sense of gratitude and pride for his more than thirty years of recovery from alcohol addiction.”
In recent years Lackey disclosed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
“I’m glad he’s not suffering anymore,” Stephens said. “… It’s like any of those wasting diseases: you die a little bit every day. When he was no longer able to fly—that was so much a part of his joy in life—I knew that took away a lot. But he faced it was with grace and humility, better than probably anybody I know.”
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According to his obituary, a worship service will be scheduled at a later date for family and friends. The family suggests memorial donations to the University of Kentucky Neuroscience Institute or the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
A list of survivors wasn’t immediately available.
Meanwhile, WSON (AM 860/FM 96.5) announced it would broadcast a remembrance of Henry Lackey from 8:30 to 9 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 6, and would invite listeners to call in at 270-826-3923.
