Kathleen Laws

Kathleen was preceded in the death by her husband of 55 years, Robert E. “Bob” Laws and is survived by her children, Mary and husband Doug Erwin of Houston and Robert and wife Kate Laws of Baltimore, Maryland. In addition, she leaves behind eight grandchildren and the 15 great-grandchildren that she was thrilled to live long enough to fall in love with.

Kathleen was born on the 2nd of March 1927, in Sullivan, Indiana, the daughter of the late George Roland and Mary Reeves Campbell. She spent her childhood around the family farm with her parents and grandparents and grew especially close to her grandfather, Calvin Campbell, who lived well into his 90s.

She described her interesting childhood in southwestern Indiana during the Great Depression. “We moved back to the farm which the family had been homesteading from the 1850s. It was not far from the Wabash River where Lewis and Clark had started their exploration of the West. This land had once been the home of the Mound Builders Tribes of Indians and where I used to find many arrowheads and stone tomahawks in my trudges over the newly plowed fields on my way to catch the school bus.”

After WWII broke out, her family moved to Tucson, Arizona where she attended high school and the University of Arizona, completing her undergraduate work at Indiana University with a B.A. in Economics and where she also met her future husband. She later obtained a Master of Science Degree in Education and became qualified to teach all 12 grades in different subjects. She proceeded to do just that for several years at the Park Tudor School in Indianapolis.

Following 20 years of raising their family in Indianapolis, Kathleen and Bob packed up their two children, the cat, the dog and their sailboat and moved to Greenwich, Connecticut where Bob commuted to NYC for 23 years until he retired. Kathleen volunteered, took language classes, studied art and painted, becoming a talented artist in both oil and watercolor. They traveled the world and explored the New England coast in their 42-foot trawler.

In 1991, they retired to Savannah, Georgia to enable the year round use of their boat and enjoy the warm weather sports of golf, tennis and sailing. The two of them transported their vessel by themselves via the inland waterway and the ocean from Greenwich to Savannah, dropping anchor in a quiet river or a marina…an exciting adventure that is chronicled in the ship’s log.

Following the death of her husband, Kathleen moved to Houston to be closer to family. It was a sweet homecoming as she had first been introduced to Texas when she attended kindergarten in Kingsville after her father took a job with Bob Kleberg on the King Ranch. As she said, “Some days I would go out and sniff noses with the longhorns at the circular water trough by the hacienda. I learned to love the desert and cactus. I also learned the sounds a rattlesnake makes outside your window during the night, the rumble of wheels going over the cattle guards and the Spanish-speaking voices like music. A real education.”

It tickled her to end her days in Texas and she took full advantage, earning her 75-year pin with the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority, attending meetings of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Texas, and The Texas Society of Mayflower Descendants.

Most especially she enjoyed the many friendships she developed with her neighbors at The Hallmark.

A memorial service is to be conducted at eleven o'clock in the morning on Saturday, the 28th of January 2023, in the chapel of The Church of St. John the Divine, 2450 River Oaks Boulevard in Houston.

In lieu of customary remembrances, memorial contributions may be directed to The Salvation Army Houston Command, 1500 Austin, Houston, TX 77002, ROCO of Houston, 1934 W. Gray St Unit 311, Houston, TX 77019 or the charity of one’s choice.

Please visit Mrs. Laws’ online memorial tribute at GeoHLewis.com where fond memories and words of comfort and condolence may be shared electronically with her family.