Herbert Lasky, a retired judge with the St. Louis County Circuit Court, died Monday, Feb. 22, 2010, at the Garden View Care Center in Valley Park, from the late terminal phase of Alzheimer’s disease which he had battled for the past 10 years. He was 92.

Mr. Lasky was the youngest of five sons of the late Samuel Lasky and Elizabeth (nee Bricker) Lasky.

“As a child, he exhibited incredible vocal talent and sang on KMOX as well as at B’nai Amoona with his father and uncles,” recalled his wife, Carole, of St. Louis County. “As a teenager, he formed his own band, ‘Buzz Lasky and his Meticulous Masters,’ which played at dances throughout the city and county,” she added.

Mr. Lasky graduated from Soldan High School and attended Washington University, graduating from its law school with a doctor of law degree (J.D.) degree in 1949. His studies had been interrupted by service in the Army Air Force in the Pacific during World War II; he also was recalled in the Korean War. He retired from the Air Force as a colonel in 1966, the year he was elected a judge. He was elected to the bench as a Republican before Missouri adopted the Nonpartisan Court Plan. He was re-elected twice under the plan.

A case assigned to Judge Lasky in 1971 involved the 1836 Missouri abortion law. Because of its nonspecific language he ruled it unconstitutional because he felt that a person of average intelligence could not adequately understand it. Two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Roe v. Wade case.

“All three decisions were painted with the same brush,” recalled his wife Carole. She pointed out that Judge Lasky refused to discuss the case with the media and said she felt the media “are obsessed with this case.”

She added that Judge Lasky had ruled in the case of a 19-year-old man who was sent to prison for possession of less than an ounce of marijuana for 60 years was “cruel and unusual punishment and freed the man. Also, in 1951, when he was a Judge Advocate in the United States Air Force, he gave an honorable discharge to three gay soldiers who were about to be dishonorably discharged. He was a great and wonderful human being and will be eternally missed by those who knew him.”

Judge Lasky retired from the Circuit Court in 1982 to return to private law practice. He later returned to the bench as a senior judge.

Prior to his election to the Circuit Court, he was a lawyer in private practice in St. Louis County, a member of the staff of the County Counselor’s office and an administrative assistant to U.S. Rep. Thomas B. Curtis.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m., Friday, March 26 at Central Reform Congregation, 5020 Waterman Boulevard.

In addition to his wife of nearly 33 years, Dr. Carole Lasky, survivors include a daughter, Dorothea Dawn Lasky Donovan of Queens, N.Y.

The family suggests memorial contributions to further the work of Dr. George Grossberg, Department of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, School of Medicine, St. Louis University.