Memorial services for Rose Eugenia Lawson, 97, Vinland, will be 11 am, Saturday, August 26, 2017, at the Vinland United Methodist Church. A visitation will be from 10 am until service time.
She was born December 28, 1919 near Vinland, Kansas. She was the oldest of five children born to Clyde Eugene and Minnie Sarah (Hoskinson) Nichols.
Rose was raised in the Harmony and Coal Creek school districts. She was the valedictorian of her class of 10 at Vinland Rural High School in 1938. To help pay for her further schooling, she worked at the Star Cash grocery store in Vinland which included selling gas from an old-fashioned gravity-fed pump. She attended Emporia State Teachers College and then taught in one-room schoolhouses at Pleasant Valley and Wakarusa Valley.
During World War II, she became engaged to Murray Eugene Lawson who had been a high school schoolmate and was serving in the U.S. Navy. They were married on Sept. 23, 1945 in her parents’ living room near Vinland. After their marriage, Murray served as a deputy with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. In 1948, they moved to Vinland and became partners in the Stevens dairy farm. They eventually bought this farm and lived there together for more than 40 years.
After her children were grown, Rose worked as a secretary at Baker University.
She enjoyed gardening, quilting, cooking for family, reading, Royals baseball and KU basketball. She attended Vinland United Methodist Church and was involved in the Vinland PTA.
After Murray’s death on May 3, 1989, Rose continued to manage the family farm for 16 years. In 2005, she moved to Baldwin City, where she died August 18, 2017. She also was preceded in death by her parents, three sisters and one brother.
Survivors include one daughter, Anne Bunch and husband Rob, Terre Haute, Ind.; four sons, Dennis and wife Sandra; and Gary and wife Karen, of Vinland; Eric and wife Jean Ann; and Stanley, of Kansas City, Mo.; nine grandchildren, Jennifer (Matthew) Blann, Abigail (Josh) Hinds, Kevin Lawson, Sam Bunch, Luke Bunch, Brandon (Myka) Lawson, Sarah (Kevin) Keim, Brent (Rachel) Lawson and Kyle Lawson (Evan Dahlgren); and ten great-grandchildren, Carter and Easton Blann; Brie, Emma and Adlar Hinds; Hadley Lawson; Kaitlyn and Benjamin Keim; Makenna and Ashlyn Rose Lawson.
The family suggests memorial contributions made to the Vinland United Methodist Church, Vinland Cemetery or Visiting Nurses, sent in care of Rumsey-Yost Funeral Home, 601 Indiana Street, Lawrence, KS 66044.
Online condolences made at rumsey-yost.com