When I started school at URI in 1966 the only road to get there was a small winding road. I would pass a falling down house situated on a charming spot. One day I found the courage to knock on the door; thats how I met Bill Lacy, the hermit of Narrow River. He wasn’t really a hermit; he just couldn’t get around very well as he had no car and there certainly was no bus passing by.
The skiffs in the photograph were one of Bill’s only source of income, you could rent one for a quarter a day, to go rowing or fishing on the river.
The photo of Bill sitting on the steps of his house with his cat, tells quite a story.
The man with the rake was Bill’s nearest neighbor, they didn’t speak. His source of income was smoking pogies in his outhouse. I was never certain if he revealed this to his customers.
The day Bill died his house was bulldozed and it was as if he had never existed.
Thanks for the memories your photos evoke. The guy with the shovel is Bill Yoman. He and his brother Joe lived on the farm next to Lacey’s. In the 50’s I spent childhood summers in the homestead across the street from the Yoman farm. On summer nights I would hang out at the bridge with other kids listening to Bill Lacey talk on into ther night, tall tales all the way. Bill Yoman was wonderful. Joe was unique. I knew them all until they passed in turn. My aunt still lives in the corner lot across from Lacey and the Yomans.
whoa. Bill Lacey was my dad’s uncle. this post made my night.
Bill Lacy. Was my Uncle my Mother was Clara Lacy,my Grand Mother and Bills mother
Was Alice Lacy
This is Richard Barker Grant, President of the Narrow River
Preservation Association (NRPA) and we will be attempting to
have a news release in our newsletter with comments from
people who know Bill Lacey. So we would like a note and especially pictures that you can email to narrow river.org or richardbgrant4796@gmail.com. From the children who used to
know him and listened to his long stories and the mother who
used to bring hem meals, still feels in her heart how life ended
for a narrow river character.
This is Maryann McCaffrey Knag. My parents bought the old former school house at 32 Bridgetown Rd in 1953. I and other family members still own it and use it.
We first met Bill Lacey in the summer of 1954. We were told that locals called him “BillyWhiskers”, but never to call him by that name because he was very strong and had once thrown a teenager into the River for doing so.
He was known as the last of the Narrow River Fishermen because he and his mother lived strictly off income from fishing, selling bait, renting skiffs and the vegetables they grew in their small garden.
The house was very small but two storied and unpainted wood. It had a small porch with a strand of Christmas lights across the front year round.
We rented boats from him. Not sure if we paid a nickel or a quarter/hour. We loved watching him. In the next house (now owned by the Panoffs) lived Judge Watts who had a man servant who farmed the field in back. Judge Watts had no electricity. When we drove by at night we could see candle lights.
My mother, while researching the history of the school house at 32 Bridgetown Rd, came and interviewed Bill Lacey. He told her that after the school house was abandoned, squatters lived there, including Bill and his mom, African-Americans and Native Americans. So Bill Lacey lived in our house for a time.
I don’t remember when his mom died. But some time in the early 60’s, we learned that Bill had died. The story was that one night he was seen at Twin Willows “flashing a roll of dollar bills” and the next day he was found floating in Narrow River. This was hearsay, I have no corroboration.
He was a real man we knew, as well as a local legend.
Maryann Knag
mmknag@aol.com
The story told to me by the family who knew him went like this.
In the end, Bill Lacy was found dead on the South Kingstown side of Narrow River. One of the kids from that family found Bill and ran home (to the Narragansett side of Narrow River) and told his mother,
“Bill’s is lying on the shore.”
It was the mother who called Narragansett police.
Narragansett police reported to the scene even though the body was found on the SK side of Narrow River. South Kingstown police found out and became agitated and a conflict between the two departments ensued.
Bill was face down with a cut on the back of his head! The death certificate ruled he slipped and fell and no further investigation was warranted.
The family closest to him said he’d never fall in a place where he learned to crawl. There was also talk he visited the Twin Willows on this fateful night and flashed a wad of cash throughout the bar. Thats the only grain of proof of the conspiracy theory.
Bills lineage related him to the Carpenters, Tuckers and the Harvey, all established South County families.
Another guy who grew up with Bill told me this. In young adulthood, Bill was denied entry into the armed forces. At the start of WWII, all the young men from town took buses to Providence to join and go fight in the World War. Bill joined in the ride up but got sent back home….because as I was told,
“He didn’t know nothing”
Meaning, I guess, He
wasn’t schooled and probably couldn’t read or write.
Oddly enough; if you were at War you’d probably want Bill by your side the entire length of the conflict. I’m just saying he’d could’ve been the best fighting soldier among them but because he couldn’t write a full sentence he was sent home in disgrace.
This bothered Bill Lacy more than anything and for years he sulked around town and carried that shame and rejection for the rest of his life.
I did mention the family near Bridgetown who called Bill Lacy part of their family. I know them personally and when I visited the mother of this crew; she had photos of Bill and her kids covering the walls.
They were all suspicious about how he died all for the sake of a couple of bucks? No one will ever know what really happened to Bill Lacy but can only speculate on the the life of one South County soul who lived his entire life on Narrow River and died on it as well.