Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

Bayfield library founder McCoy dies at 96

Lavenia McCoy, 96, a longtime librarian and teacher in Bayfield and Ignacio, died Monday, Aug. 31, at her home.

She helped start Bayfield’s public library in downtown Bayfield, and the Pine River Public Library building was named after her in 2005.

Lavenia Morgan arrived in Bayfield on Jan. 1, 1939. She started teaching Jan. 2 at Bayfield High School, where some of the senior students were older than she was.

She started volunteering at Bayfield’s library, then a shelf of shared books in Beech’s store. Eventually, she helped move the collection to the building that had been Farmers and Miners Bank, on the northeast corner of Mill and Pearl streets, where she and another woman started cataloging books using the Dewey Decimal System. That remained the home of the Pine River Public Library until a new facility opened in 2004.

McCoy was one of the leaders of the effort to create the Pine River Library District. Voters approved that with a 90 percent yes vote in 1972. She became library board president, then the district treasurer. She was honored in 2002 by the Southwest Regional Library Service System. The award was named “The Real McCoy” and is presented to dedicated librarians in the region.

She married Dee McCoy of Bayfield, and they had three children, Ann McCoy Harold, Stewart McCoy and Donnalee Baxstrom; and grandchildren and great-grandchildren Lavenia and Vince Taylor and son TJ, and Ashley and Dawn Baxstrom and son Jagger Boone. She also is survived by her son-in-law, Harry Baxstrom.

She worked in the school office, taught and was school librarian in Bayfield until the mid 1960s, when she went to Ignacio schools. She retired there in 1972.

She often said, “It’s a real pleasure that people who were once my students have become my friends.”

She served on election boards, helped the effort to build Bayfield’s first gym, sponsored school functions and put Bayfield’s library second only to her family.

Later in life, she was an honorary grandmother to the Pine River 4-H Club and volunteered at the Pine River Valley Heritage Society. She also enjoyed lunch at the Pine River Senior Center.

Memorial contributions are being accepted at the library.

A funeral service will be at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, at Bayfield Church of Christ. Burial will follow at Pine River Cemetery, followed by a reception at the church.



Reader Comments