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Lackey continues VFW upward climb

Twenty years ago, Esperanza “Eppie” Lackey won her first district office in the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary, and the path has been upwards ever since.

In June 1998, she was installed as president of the Auxiliary’s District

12. On June 16 of this year, she earned the distinction of being named VFW Department of Texas State President for 2018-2019.

Lackey first joined the local VFW Chapter 5398 in 1995 under her son, Harold Duran, of Pittsburg, who retired from the U.S. Air Force. Her other two sons, James Lackey and Leroy Duran also served in the Air Force. Her brother served in the military as well.

“I am originally from New Mexico and was always a volunteer, but I didn’t join until I came here,” Lackey said. “I’ve held every office in the auxiliary, and I’ve been district president three times,” Lackey said.

She is also serving as the president of the local chapter this year.

She initially joined on a fluke, she said. She met former member Jimmy Williams at the local VFW while she was volunteering, and he asked her out.

“He asked me for a date to go to a district meeting in Paris, and I didn’t know what the VFW was all about. I couldn’t attend the meeting, but we went to the joint memorial service, and we were sitting around having drinks and visiting, and he introduced me around,” she recalled. “The local post was in a bad situation, and the state was going to close it down, and that’s what got me. So, I asked them, ‘What is it that you do?’ They started explaining about all the programs for veterans, and I came back and joined the next week.”

She said with her jumping in to help; they saved the post.

Her duties as state president are to oversee each of the 25 districts in their efforts to carry out the VFW’s mission and programs such as its signature Buddy Poppy program, hospital and VA volunteers, youth activities, scholarships, legislation and veteran and family support.

“Our purpose is to support the veterans and take care of the programs, promote patriotism,” Lackey said. “We are very involved in suicide awareness.”

Lackey will represent the Texas VFW at the national convention in Kanas City, Missouri July 21 where the national officers will be elected.

As president; she chose “Unite as One” as her theme because she wants to unite the auxiliary’s male and female members. Four years after the VFW Men’s Auxiliary was folded into the Ladies Auxiliary organization, the “macho men are still hesitant to join the ladies,” she said. “But, they are coming around.”

Lackey said the reason for the change is that so many women are joining the military now, so a lot of men are the family members and are eligible for auxiliary membership.

Escorted by her granddaughter, U.S. Marine Cpl. Maya Lackey, to be installed during the VFW Auxiliary State Convention in Dallas gave Lackey a profound sense of pride in both their accomplishments.

“I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would be in this position. I have a love for it,” she said. “It has given me a life.”

Lackey encouraged others to get involved at the local level and consider following in her path.

“You have to have a feeling of love of country and a heart for supporting our veterans and helping them through the hardships they go through,” she said.

With the recent patriotic holidays, she reminds people that “freedom is not free” and the membership fees to join the organization are a small price to pay.

“It is not the price you pay. It’s the price you paid to be eligible, to have the privilege. They paid their sacrifice for us,” she said.

1998

The Pittsburg Gazette

112 Quitman
Pittsburg, TX 75686

Phone: 903-856-6629