Lacey Heather Davenport McNeely, age 48, of Philomath Oregon, passed away on Thursday June 5, 2025. Born May 22, 1977 in Toledo Oregon. (The day the world got a lot brighter).
Lacey was the first daughter of Steve and Brenda Davenport. She grew up in both Siletz and Toledo in her early childhood. She attended Toledo high school where she graduated as a Valedictorian in 1995.
In high school Lacey started dating Michael McNeely on February 25, 1993. They quickly became inseparable and that was still the same 32-plus years later.
In 1999, Lacey graduated from Oregon State University with a degree in Exercise and Sports Science. She worked at some local fitness clubs for a while then welcomed her son, Trystan, into the world in 2000. In 2002, her daughter Braedyn was born, and the family was complete. Lacey was an amazing mother and chose to stay home with the kids while they were young and put her career on hold. She was engaged in every part of their young lives, and it shows.
Lacey has always loved to work hard and loved to learn. She decided to go back to school in 2007 to get her Master’s in Business. She graduated in 2009 and immediately started teaching at Oregon State University. She taught numerous classes, but the ones she loved most were project management. Lacey loved her students and was honestly never off work. If a student messaged her at midnight she was going to answer it. She wanted them to work hard and get something out of her classes. As well as teaching for the College of Business, she also loved to teach cardio kick boxing. She taught this class no different than any other, 100% all in. She wanted to make sure everyone knew how to throw a punch and kick like you meant it. She had a saying, “Sweat more Bitch less.” Lacey also did a lectureship In Germany on project management for five years. The timing of this worked out perfectly as we were able to attend Oktoberfest in Munich multiple times.
Outside of work, Lacey loved coaching basketball. She volunteered her time coaching youth basketball with PYAC. This turned into an obsession, and she began coaching a girls tournament team that played a lot of basketball to say the least. All of these girls and their families all bought in and Lacey led the way. These were great times and so many late nights of Lacey putting together game plans and practice schedules. No clue where she found enough time in a day to complete everything. The highlight of Lacey’s coaching was the girls winning the eighth-grade state championship in Bend, Oregon. All of those years of hard work had paid off. Lacey liked to see things get accomplished and this was one of them. Lacey loved to hunt, especially her trips to Idaho with her dad and brother. She shot her first bull elk in Idaho in 2012. She also loved to fish, mainly at Clear Lake. She grew up fishing there as a child and this became our go to spot with our family over the years. When the kids were young the summers were always filled with camping trips, there was a lot of time spent on lakes and rivers over the years all over Oregon. Along with one long road trip to Yellowstone with the Rust family. Lots of great memories made in everything Lacey did.
As the kids were getting older, we decided to build our forever home on a piece of property we had purchased years ago. In 2012 we started logging, did site prep and finished the home in 2014. Lacey had an amazing eye for home decorating and landscaping and repurposing almost anything that could be used. Lacey loved working on all projects related to the house or garden. She loved being outside until late evening every day during the summer months. She took up canning, and I mean canning a lot. She was an amazing sour dough bread maker, made the best cheesecakes in the world, always made amazing meals and made so much Christmas candy every year to pass out to friends and family.
Lacey loved to travel, Germany was one of the favorites, so many memories from there. Our last trip to Italy for New Year’s 2023 with family and friends was a trip of a lifetime. Next trip was going to be somewhere warm and sunny. Don’t keep talking about going places, if you want to go, do it!
Lacey is just such an amazing soul. Every person she crossed paths with throughout her short life is a better person in some way. She raised both of her children with her same values: hard work, respect, kindness, and confidence. In the last year of her life what she really taught all of us was the importance of family and friends. She was so courageous and never a day went by without that beautiful smile. Lacey was always so positive, no matter what she was going through. Lacey was living her life, with 100% determination to beat cancer. And she was beating cancer! Just a rare side effect from some chemotherapy medicine kept her from achieving that goal. As she would say, there are so many things left to see. She wanted to see her kids get married some day and the thought of grandchildren at some point was always exciting. And maybe at some point parts of Lacey might be able to see some of these things. Lacey was a donor and her eyes were donated after her passing. I received letters that parts of her eyes were used for two recipients who had successful transplants and regained their gift of sight. This is something Lacey would be so happy for. She always put everyone else first and that will always continue.
Lacey loved to say this: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right.” (Henry Ford).
Lacey is survived by her husband of 27 years, Mike; her children, Trysan (Sarah) and Braedyn (Christian); parents, Steve (Rochelle) and Brenda (Brad); siblings, Brandon and Jodi and stepsiblings, Jeremy, Emily and Amanda; and of course her dog, Charlee, and her granddog, Shredder.
A small celebration of life will be planned at a later date.