Gary R. Lucy

Gary R. Lucy, 76, of Washington, passed away on November 20, 2025. He was born on February 5, 1949 in Kennett, Missouri to the late Roy Lucy and Edith (nee Lowry). After graduating from Caruthersville High School in 1967, Gary earned his degree in art education at Southeast Missouri State University, despite a brief detour where he almost became an accountant. On January 11, 1985, he was united in marriage to Sandy Beste at St. Francis Borgia Church.

For more than fifty years, Gary Lucy brought history and nature to life with his art. After one year of teaching art for the Washington, Missouri school district, Gary resigned his position to pursue a career as a professional, full-time artist.  His early works focused on the beauty of wildlife and led to success in the form of winning national competitions with his striking attention to detail and accuracy. Seventeen million copies of his works, “Missouri Trilogy” and “Songbirds of Missouri,” have gone throughout the state of Missouri on the cover of Southwestern Bell telephone books. When Gary’s work shifted into historic interpretation, his popularity increased and brought about three separate opportunities to exhibit his work at the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis and be featured on PBS’s Jim Lehrer News Hour. His eight paintings of the journey of Lewis and Clark alone have been reprinted over 225 million times worldwide. The painting “Jefferson City: Capital City River and Rail Transportation” is part of the permanent collection of the Governor’s Mansion in Jefferson City. His body of work also includes several murals, plein air pieces, and many commissioned works. Gary’s last major work was a mural, “The Best of Small Town Living,” commissioned in 2022 by the Caruthersville Area Arts Council and displayed in the Crysler Exchange Building in his hometown of Caruthersville, Missouri.

For Gary, art was a five-syllable word—communication. Throughout his life, his art was a path of connection and engagement with audiences of all ages. He’d invite students who visited his studio on a school trip to add their own dab of paint to the two-headed dragon sitting in his studio. Tour groups and visitors who stopped by the gallery didn’t just see beautiful paintings; they also made a connection with the artist in the stories he shared.

Gary was preceded in death by his parents and his mother and father-in-law, Laverne and Adolph Beste.

He is survived by his wife, Sandy Lucy of Washington, cousins, and many friends.

A visitation will be held on Tuesday, December 2, 2025, from 3-7 p.m. at Nieburg-Vitt, Miller Funeral Home. Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday, December 3, 2025, at 11 a.m. at St. Francis Borgia Church. Interment will be in the church cemetery. Memorial donations may be made to St. Francis Borgia Parish, St. Francis Borgia Grade School Tuition Assistance, or Caruthersville Area Arts Council.

Arrangements in care of Nieburg-Vitt, Miller Funeral Home, Washington.  

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