Online Memorial Service for Fred Lightsey Lancaster

The memorial service for Fred Lancaster was held on Sunday, March 14, at 2:00pm.

Comments to the family are welcome here. There may be a slight delay in them showing up as they are reviewed before posting. An archived recording of the service may be found below.

Obituary

Fred Lightsey Lancaster, a quiet and gentle man, left his loving family on March 1, 2021 to join his Maker. Fred was born in his maternal grandmother’s home in Fairfax, SC to Helen (Lightsey) and Harry Lloyd Lancaster, Sr. He was raised in Port Royal SC and attended a two-room schoolhouse for his elementary years. He graduated from Beaufort High School at 16. In 1950, he graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree from Clemson University when it was a military college and served on the Senior Platoon. After college, he returned to Port Royal where he and a friend rented a boat and made a living shrimping while he waited to be called up for military service. Fred entered the US Army as a commissioned officer and served for two years including one tour in Korea with the 10th Engineering Combat Battalion where he ran a quarry and built roads for the Third (3D) Infantry Division. He then attended The Citadel on the GI Bill and graduated with a Civil Engineering degree.

While studying in Charleston, Fred lived on a boat in the yacht basin with a fellow vet student from Beaufort and captained fishing charters on the weekends. During this time, he met and married the love of his life, Sidney Jean Badger, a nursing student at the time. In the 1980s, Fred was invited back to The Citadel and inducted into Tau Beta Pi, The Engineering Honor Society. Fred worked as a civil engineer for over 40 years including at the Corps of Engineers in Charleston, Tidewater Construction in Norfolk, and for over 30 years with Crowder Construction Company in Charlotte. He was well known in the industry for his knowledge and oversaw the construction and repair of large foundations, bridges, dams, and papermills throughout NC, SC, and VA.

Fred was a long-time member of Sharon UMC (now SouthPark Church) and participated in the Aldridge Forum class and the Men’s Prayer Breakfast. He participated in three foreign building missions with the church to Antigua and Puerto Rico. Fred volunteered for 15 years on a Habitat for Humanity framing crew and returned to South Korea in 2001 with the Jimmy Carter Work Project. His suitcase was his army duffel bag which elicited many a thank you from the older citizens for his, and our country’s, service during the war. Fred’s hobbies over the years included flying small airplanes, amateur photography, and many years of golfing at Cedarwood Country Club.

The family wishes to thank his Stephen Minister and his physical therapists, Kurt and Neelam, who treated him with kindness and dignity and surely extended the quality and length of his life.

In his last years, Fred was not able to play with his youngest two grandchildren, 5-year-old Millie and 3-year-old Mattie Grace, but sitting and watching them play or swim was his great joy. Fred is survived by his wife of 64 years, Sid (Badger) Lancaster; his four children: Rick Lancaster (Liz), Carrollton TX; Lynn McFarlane (Scott), Matthews; Leslie Lancaster, Gastonia; and Russ Lancaster (Melissa), Indian Trail; his five grandchildren: Ross Lancaster, Dallas TX; Jackson McFarlane and Lena McFarlane; and Millie Lancaster and Mattie Grace Lancaster; as well as many nieces and nephews. Fred was preceded in death by his parents, a sister Betty Ann Taylor, and a brother, Harry Lloyd Lancaster, Jr.