South Knoxville gardening guru Lisa Stanley dies at 63

Lisa Diane Allen Stanley, the face of Stanley’s Greenhouses to thousands of customers, lost her 2½-year battle with cancer on Sunday, June 19. She was 63.

Rocky and Lisa Stanley with Monte Stanley (Photo from Facebook)

Married to Rocky Stanley, head of the Stanley’s growing team, just shy of 45 years, Lisa Stanley energetically co-managed the Stanley’s customer-service team and shared her passion for flowers and plants with beginners and experienced gardeners alike.

Born March 23, 1959, she was a member of the last graduating class of South High School in 1976 and worked as a hostess at Ye Olde Steak House and in secretarial positions at Lay Packing Co., the University of Tennessee Medical Center and the UT College of Human Ecology before joining the Stanley family business in the late 1990s.

Pat Summitt and Lisa Stanley (Photo from Facebook)

She was a welcome speaker for civic groups and garden clubs and was a longtime member of the Chapman Highway Garden Club. She was a member of Church Street United Methodist Church.

She was committed to a number of nonprofits, especially the Alzheimer’s Pansy Project benefiting the Pat Summitt Foundation. Each fall for the past 10 years, Stanley’s has sold flats of orange and purple Panola pansies – orange in honor of Pat Summitt and purple in recognition of people suffering from Alzheimer’s, the disease that cut Summitt’s life short – and donated the proceeds to the Summitt Foundation.

Stanley liked pansies but always said she was “crazy about violas,” the “mother” of pansies.

Rocky and Lisa Stanley (front) with Paige Huntoon, son Zach Stanley, daughter Abby Stanley-Jerrolds and Holden Jerrolds (Photo from Facebook)

She is survived by her mother, Arzelia Henderlight Allen; husband, Roger Sterling “Rocky” Stanley; son Zach Stanley (Paige Huntoon); daughter Abby Stanley-Jerrolds (Holden Jerrolds); sister Anna Allen Montgomery (Kurt K. Weiss); aunt Rheta Henderlight Rimmer; brother-in-law Monte Stanley (Whitney); and sister-in-law Barbara Stanley Barton (Jim).

A graveside service celebrating the life of Lisa Stanley will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, June 23, at Woodlawn Cemetery, with Ty Berry officiating. Berry Funeral Home, 3704 Chapman Highway, is handling the funeral arrangements. Full obituary here.

Betsy Pickle is a veteran freelance writer and editor who lives in South Knoxville.