Stacy Ellen Peabody

Stacy Ellen Peabody, of Olalla, Washington, passed peacefully at home on June 30 after a very brief, but valiant battle with primary liver cancer. Stacy was loved by her many friends and family and will be forever missed.

Stacy was born on February 2, 1950, to her parents Gerard C. R. Peabody and Virginia Kimball Peabody, at Fort Lawton Army Hospital on Magnolia Bluff in Seattle in a legendary snowstorm. As a baby she lived for 1 ½ years in Mexico City while her dad was in art school. She spent the rest of her childhood in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, graduating from Ballard High School in 1968. Her summers were spent at the family summer cabin at Hermosa Beach on the Tulalip reservation outside Marysville. She was blessed with two sets of friends; her Ballard friends during the school year, and Hermosa friends who, like her, relocated to the beach every summer. While winters were spent with school and dance classes, summers meant swimming, sunbathing, fishing, crabbing, waterskiing and just being kids.

After high school Stacy spent one year at Shoreline Community College, then was hired by Trans World Airlines (TWA) as a flight attendant. After her training in 1970 in Overland Park, Kansas, Stacy moved to New York City where she was based with TWA. Stacy flew on the original Boeing 747 flight crews, flying mostly international routes between New York and Europe. After her years with TWA, Stacy returned to Seattle, then spent a long fishing season working nearly a year in a cannery in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

Stacy was very proud of her heritage as a descendent of the Marshall and Peabody families, founders of the historic Black Ball Line, largest of the packet ship lines, sailing between Brooklyn and Liverpool beginning in 1819. Her great-grandfather Charles E. Peabody, was the founder of Alaska Steamship Company and Puget Sound Navigation in the 1890’s, which became the Black Ball ferry system on Puget Sound. The family sold out in 1951 to the State of Washington, creating the Washington State Ferries (WSF). Stacy continued the family tradition in 1976, by becoming the first female sailor in the family, when she joined the Washington State Ferries. She retired in 2007 after 31 years of service with WSF.

In 1978, Stacy met Brad Smith while at work on the ferry on the Fauntleroy-Southworth run. Brad and Stacy married in 1982 on Isla Mujeres, Mexico, then lived their entire married life in Manchester and Olalla. Stacy’s greatest accomplishment though was as a mother. Brad and Stacy spent over two months in Cambodia in 1991, where they adopted their son Charles (Sophinn). While conquering several health challenges through the years, Stacy balanced work and family life with unsurpassed skill.

Stacy loved spending time with her family and many friends. She loved watching all sports, especially Husky football, cooking and experimenting with new recipes, was a voracious reader and always worked her daily crossword puzzle. She loved to travel, through the years taking trips to Europe, Tahiti, Asia and the Cayman Islands. Stacy enjoyed vacations too numerous to count with family and friends on houseboats trips, and to Mexico, Hawaii and Priest Lake, to name a few. And Stacy loved to work, insisting on continuing at her retirement job at the Bremerton-Kitsap Airporter until just four weeks before she passed.

Stacy is survived by 3 sisters, Dana Peabody of Marysville, Kim Peabody of Bainbridge Island and Marylynn Riddell of Snohomish. She is also survived by her husband of 34 years, Brad Smith of Olalla; her son, Sophinn Smith of Manchester; nieces Kinshasha Jackson and Emily Parker, nephews Brandon Riddell and Max Sandvig, brother-in-law Bryce Riddell, and Brad’s large family who she loved like it was her own. She was preceded in death by her dad, Chuck, in 1986, and her mother, Virginia, in 1991.

A Celebration of Life will be held for Stacy from 1 to 4 PM on Saturday, July 16 at the Clubhouse at McCormick Woods, 5155 McCormick Woods Drive SW, Port Orchard, Washington. Visit the website for Rill Chapel’s Life Tribute Center at www.rill.com for the full obituary and to share a memory of Stacy.

Donations in lieu of flowers may be sent to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, PO Box 19023, Seattle, WA 98109-1023. Checks may be made payable to SCCA. Indicate they are in memory of Stacy Peabody. Donations in Stacy’s name will directly fund research in the Liver Tumor Clinic at SCCA. Or call 206-288-2070 to donate by phone.