Winnifred “Freddie” Legault (Nee Hymas) was born on March 23, 1953, in Raymond, Idaho, the fourth of six children born to Glen Matthews Hymas and Helen Mar Evans Hymas. Nearly 68 years later she lost a prolonged battle with pancreatic cancer and passed in her sleep next to her loving husband of 47 years, Raymond Legault.
Growing up on the family’s farm, tending to livestock, and helping to care for her younger siblings, Freddie developed the empathy and the fortitude that would see her to success in the many roles she took on during her life. She cut her teeth in the working world as a waitress and, after graduating from Bear Lake High School in 1971, used her savings to enroll at Idaho State University where she earned her degree as a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN).
Taking her first nursing job at Bannock Memorial Hospital proved a fateful step as it was there that she met two lifelong friends and partners, Marilyn Olsen, who would become like family to Freddie over their decades long friendship, and her future husband, pharmacist Ray Legault. As Freddie would frequently recall, her first date with Ray seemed a disaster when she nervously spilled two drinks on her date. This would become the first of many stories they’d laugh about over more than 40 years of marriage, through three states, through numerous ups and downs, as they built a family of their own.
On October 6, 1973, Freddie and Ray drove from Pocatello, Idaho, to Elko, Nevada, where they married. It was their first time visiting the Silver State and they had no idea just five years later they would return to call Las Vegas their home. For the next 40 years, Ray and Freddie lived and worked in Las Vegas, watching as the town transformed from its seedy 70’s mystique into the sprawling urban city it became. Marrying Ray already saw Freddie becoming a loving stepmother to four-year-old Brent, and the couple would soon expand their family with the birth of Stephen (1981) and Adrienne (1983).
Though Freddie liked helping people, she found that nursing was not her calling. After moving to Las Vegas she enrolled at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and graduated in 1983 with a degree in business administration. She used this education as the bedrock of a successful career in real estate. Freddie’s gift for gab, her warm, friendly heart, not to mention her penchant for sarcasm and snark, would see her build a broad network of clients, many of whom also became lifelong friends, a pattern that continued throughout Freddie’s life.
As their careers and family grew, Freddie and Ray continued to draw others into their orbit. This included a long list of storied dogs and cats (but never birds) who came into their lives over the years. From picking up stray cats and other creatures to acting as host for family and friends, the Legault family circle grew larger and larger. The couple’s long-time friend, Marilyn, relocated to Vegas with them, and year by year, more and more of the family came to call Vegas their home as well. This included Freddie’s mother; her elder sister, Shannon (and family); her older brother, Greg (and family); and younger sister, Nancy. Whether hosting monthly game nights, serving up large extended family dinners, or enlisting her children in crafting boxes of hand-delivered Christmas cookies, Freddie was the anchor of an extended family not only bound by blood but by her magnetic wit, generosity, and heart.
While Vegas became their home, Freddie and Ray took every opportunity for adventure and exploration. The couple enjoyed taking the kids on summer vacations to national parks and theme parks while seeing both her extended family and Ray’s along the way. She often said she hoped to visit all 50 states and, though she missed just a few in the south, she nearly made her goal, even visiting the far-flung vistas of Hawaii and Alaska in the process. Her final trip abroad was to the magnificent rolling hills and red deserts of New Zealand and Australia, a trip that also allowed Freddie, a Tolkien fan, to fulfill a bucket list goal of seeing the village of Hobbiton.
Freddie’s affection for Tolkien was a reflection of a deeper love of reading and of knowledge that she cultivated her entire life. Growing up in the 1960’s, she saw the rise and power of feminism and was a vocal supporter of women’s rights. With the book club she helped to create, Freddie and friends spent years exploring the work of women writers from around the world, and she loved to discuss and debate the many political issues she’d seen and taken up over the years. She volunteered on political campaigns in Las Vegas and for the caucuses in Nevada elections. She was always up for a good debate and wasn’t shy about sharing her opinions. When she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she frequently said one of the goals that would see her through chemo was to make it to 2020 and to do her part to see that the mistakes of 2016 weren’t repeated.
Wanting to be closer to her children and grandchildren, Freddie and Ray moved to St. Louis to retire in 2018. She spent her final months enjoying the forest behind their house and all of the wildlife walking through it. She found peace in the fluttering of small birds eating from the feeder outside of the kitchen window, the crafty raccoons and squirrels trying to steal a block of suet hanging from a feeder over the edge of the deck, families of deer foraging in the shrubs, and the prehistoric-looking pileated woodpecker knocking against the birch tree trunks.
Freddie will be remembered for her compassion, her spirit of fun and adventure, and her confidence in handling and overcoming difficulties. She was the matriarch of her family and a storyteller who would not only regale with anecdotes of her own past but collected and preserved the stories of all those who intersected with her over her nearly seven decades. Those left behind by her passing know that we’ve lost a wonderful friend, mother, sister, or wife, but it was impossible to know Freddie without being changed and enriched by the experience, and we can take comfort in knowing that we will forever carry some part of Freddie with us and will give this gift to all who come into our own lives.
Freddie would not wish for the prayers of those she left behind but would instead want them to live as she tried to live.
She would want others to be kind and generous to one another, to cherish their families and to show tolerance for other people’s shortcomings, to try to make a difference in their world and to always speak out against injustice, and to love each other as she loved them.
Freddie is survived by her husband, Ray Legault, St Louis, Missouri; her children, Stephen (Rashonda) Legault, Chicago, Illinois; Adrienne (Micah Issitt), St Louis, Missouri; and her stepson, Brent (Jenna) Legault, Providence, Rhode Island; three granddaughters and one grandson; two sisters, Shannon Bagley and Nancy Cinciarelli, both from Las Vegas, Nevada; one brother, James (Elda) Hymas, Spartanberg, South Carolina; a sister-in-law, Kaye (Greg) Hymas, Las Vegas, Nevada; and many nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents; brothers, Greg and Max; two nieces; and one nephew.