Ella Kathryn Lawson

A tough southwest Iowa upbringing on the unyielding dry farmland of the 20s and 30s on the edge of the Dust Bowl; civilian service during a world war; a husband gone too soon and painfully; a daughter carried off by addiction; falls and broken bones; an attempted murder; a kidney stone/stent operation at 97; and, it seems likely, COVID. Battles my sainted Mums Kay Lawson — Ella Kathryn Lawson from east of Morton Mills, Montgomery County, Iowa, born on the table of a farm kitchen — fought with good cheer, optimism, and a genuine joy to awaken every morning, delightfully seasoned with a curiosity that did not dim with the years.

Until those final few days, first stop on rising: her laptop for the day’s news and to be in touch with friends and loved ones. We laid her to rest Fall 2021 next to her beloved Bob at a cemetery surrounded by rolling Iowa farmland a mile from where she was born. Anything good about me was first in her.
— Steve Lawson