Luckey, George Dean

From Lane Co Oregon

Sketchy records indicate that George Dean Luckey was actually a Chinese man named Gee Deen, with his name anglicized. A number of Chinese people are buried in the Luckey plot, according to recollections of Bernice Callison, Josiah Luckey’s niece. A group of Chinese people worked and lived at a laundry located where the Eugene Hotel is today, she said. When a member of their group died, they would come in the night to Joe Luckey’s house, speak with him and then bury their loved one before daybreak. It seems that Joe Luckey owned two or three plots set aside specifically for use by the Chinese, and perhaps other people of color. Records indicate another Chinese man, Ye Toy, who worked as a cook at the Sigma Nu fraternity house near the UO campus, is also buried in a Luckey plot.