In Memoriam: Louis Stacy

Chris Beytes

Louis Ormand Stacy, Jr. passed away on Wednesday, January 10, at Wayne T. Patrick Hospice House in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He was 81. You know him as the founder of Stacy’s Greenhouses in York, South Carolina. He’d been in declining health in recent years and had suffered a fall earlier that day.

Louis had been a naval aviator, flying the F8U Crusader and F4 Phantom jets in more than 80 missions over Vietnam. After his service, he came home to start Stacy’s Greenhouses. With his family’s help and with his military sense of precision, Stacy’s grew into one of the largest wholesale perennial production facilities on the East Coast. Louis spent the next forty years of his life working and improving the industry that he loved.

The business was sold to Metrolina Greenhouses in 2014; in fact, we learned of Louis’s passing from co-owner Abe VanWingerden. Wrote Abe in that note, “Louis was a pioneer in this industry when it came to marketing, merchandising, and knowing the consumer. His legacy still lives on today in the perennial world with his focus on quality and creativity, and his imprints are still all over this industry. [My brother] Art and I knew Louis for years, well before the purchase of Stacy’s in 2014, and he was a great competitor and friend over the years who was always welcoming and willing to share.” GT