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Edna Balz Lacy, ca. 1980s(Sept. 21, 1906-Dec. 30, 1991). A native of Indianapolis, Lacy graduated from and later earned a B.A. in education from the University of Michigan (1928). She returned to Indianapolis and taught introductory language courses and science in the Indianapolis Public Schools for five years before marrying Indianapolis industrialist Howard John Lacy II in 1934 and beginning a family.
After the unexpected death of her husband in 1959, Lacy became president and chair of the board of U.S. Corrugated-Fibre Box Company, a firm that her father-in-law founded in 1912. Under her direction the company became a national leader in corrugated box production and expanded into several other industries, becoming Lacy Diversified Industries in 1972.
Lacy was active on the boards of numerous Indianapolis business, civic, and charitable organizations, including the and . She was elected in 1973 as the first woman board member of the Indianapolis . One of her most significant contributions to the city was the creation in 1976 of the , memorializing a son killed in an automobile accident. The annual program provides training for young executives in community leadership skills.
Lacy’s leadership in the city brought numerous awards and recognition. Three governors named her a Sagamore of the Wabash. The Indiana Republican Mayors’ Association and Women in Communications selected her in 1976 as Woman of the Year. In 1993 she was named posthumously to the Indiana Business Hall of Fame. Lacy also received the Madam C. J. Walker Award for leadership in creating minority-owned enterprises and for promoting minority participation in the Lacy Leadership Program.
In 1995 the city honored Lacy by renaming the two-acre Greer Street Park in to the Edna Balz Lacy Family Park.
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