HARLINGEN — Friends remember Elaine Lockhart as a strong community leader who helped shape many of the city’s top civic organizations.
She died Friday at 68.
For more than 30 years, Lockhart served on boards including the United Way, the Harlingen Boys and Clubs Club, the Harlingen Literacy Center, Harlingen Proud and the Harlingen Neighborhood Food Pantry.
“Elaine was fabulous. She was the quintessential volunteer, in her church and in the community,” Mayor Chris Boswell said yesterday. “She was a real servant to the community. She had boundless energy. She had a strong personality. She was all about getting things done and getting it done right. You could always count on Elaine.”
At St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, “she was all our joy, she was all our love,” the Rev. Scott Brown, the church’s pastor, said.
“She loved giving back,” Brown said. “It will take dozens and dozens of people to replace Elaine Lockhart.”
After Ruthie Ewers moved to town about 25 years ago, she met Lockhart when she served as president of Harlingen Proud.
“She was a hard worker. She was bright and very driven. She was someone who you didn’t have to check on,” said Ewers, a retired businesswoman. “It’s a big loss. But If God needs anyone to organize heaven, it’s Elaine.”
For 35 years, Lockhart guided the Boys and Girls Club, serving four terms as its president.
“She had a tremendous community spirit,” said Gerald Gathright, the club’s director. “She wanted to make an impact on the lives of young people in our community. She was a very valuable friend and a great board member. She was one of those board members who’d always go beyond what was required.”
Lockhart became the club’s voice.
“She was a great leader,” Gathright said. “She would stand up for us. She was a strong voice who was not afraid to speak on our behalf to state leaders and community leaders.”
After Lockhart, her husband Tom and their 18-month-old daughter moved here from Amarillo in 1979, Kathy Preddy asked her to join the Boys and Girls Club.
“She wanted to make a difference in the community,” Preddy said. “She was the kind of person who would do anything for a cause. She was passionate about seeing the community in a good light. When she knows of a need she jumps on the board and makes changes happen.”
Working on the city’s boards, Preddy and Lockhart became best friends.
“She was like a sister-friend,” Preddy said. “She was strong. We went through the deaths of each others’ parents. Every time I start to cry, I think about her face. When we lost a parent, she would say, ‘They’re in a better place.’ I have to be strong because that’s what she’d want.”
