Obituary of Lewis Peavey
Lewis William Peavey, age 90, died unexpectedly on Sunday March 19, 2023. Lewis was a lifelong dairy farmer, milking registered Holstein cows from his teenage years until well into his seventies, and making hay and pasturing heifers for the rest of his years on Brookmont Farm in Fairfield, NY.
Lewis grew up in Goshen, NY, was active in 4-H, and graduated from Goshen Central School in 1950. He also graduated from Orange County Community College in 1953, all the while farming at his parents’ place.
Lewis and Treva Joan Stephenson married on July 15, 1961, and farmed in Orange County for three years, where their first daughter Jill was born. In 1965, Lewis and Treva moved to the new farm in Fairfield. Second daughter Kay was born in 1966 in Little Falls, and third daughter Kim followed in 1967. Lewis and Treva were married for 61 years. Treva lived at home for several years with Alzheimers thanks to Lewis’s care—care that never ceased when she moved to a nursing home in 2020. Like clockwork, Lewis made the drive to Albany to visit.
Lewis was honored by the NYS Holstein-Friesian Association for 70 years of membership, as well as being recognized for his accomplishment of several cows with ratings of Excellent. The cows were classified by the Holstein Association, and it was Lewis’s great pleasure in 2018 to have a cow rated 5E, a rare honor.
Lewis’s stories were about cows, tractors, and penny still and mechanical banks, another life-long interest. He also had many stories about local snowstorms: Lewis and Treva moved to Fairfield during a blizzard, and one year there was snow in a farm gully until almost July. Lewis left the farm for the last time in a white-out blizzard, with the town plow waiting at the end of the driveway to clear the way. The family extends their appreciation to the neighbors, emergency responders, and the town snowplow. Lewis would have gotten a kick out of a snowplow escort!
Though Lewis liked to call himself a hermit, he leaves a hole in many hearts and lives, and was surrounded by family at his death. Lewis is survived by his wife Treva and daughters Jill, Kay, and Kim; son-in-laws Mark Sansouci, Joe Maloney, and Frank Hunter; grandchildren Andrew and Grace Maloney, Gwen Peavey Hunter, and Emma and Nora Sansouci; as well as brothers George and Jim, cousin Richard Cobb, and many nieces and nephews.
The family will receive friends and relatives on Sunday, March 26 from 11:00 to 12:00 prior to a short memorial service at noon at the Chapman Moser Funeral Home, 42 N Ann St, Little Falls NY. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Alzheimers Association, your local Cornell Cooperative 4-H organization, or the charity of your choice.