Kathleen Elizabeth Sawyer
Sissy Spacek, Norah Jones, Laura Bush, Janis Joplin, Dale Evans,
Georgia O'Keeffe, Mary Kay Ash (Of Mary Kay cosmetics), Ann Richards
Laura Bush writes about how west Texas shaped her.
"You know, the landscape is so barren. There's no room for artifice. You have to be who you are."
*****
Kathleen Elizabeth Sawyer was born on July 18th, 1921 in Hillsboro, Texas to Ferman and Laura Beulah Sawyer. Her family lived nearby in an even smaller town, Osceola, Texas, south of the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Kathleen was the second child, her sister, Fermanetta, had been born in 1918. Ferman was a school superintendent, Laura stayed at home. A few newspaper blurbs of the day mention Ferman.
The Amarillo Globe Times, March 3, 1925 & Pampa Daily News, June 1, 1936
Kay grew up primarily in Canadian, Texas. Canadian, founded in 1908, served as the county seat and is located in the Eastern part of the Texas panhandle, near the Oklahoma border. It has been called the "oasis of the High Plains" and is named for the nearby Canadian River. Major industries in the area include ranching, oil and gas.
A 1930 Yearbook from Canadian High School has preserved a few pictures of Ferman and alludes to his "wit and wisdom." The senior class also bequeathed him a "way with women? This inside joke may be lost to the ages...Malouf Abraham was apparently a well known to the community figure.
At some point, likely in the early 1930's, there was trouble in Ferman and Laura's marriage. Laura took the girls and moved to a nearby town while Ferman remained in Canadian. Separation and divorce were virtually unheard of at that time. It is believed they may have remained apart for as long as a year, before reconciling.
Kathleen and Fermanetta were both called by nicknames. For Kathleen it was "Kay" and for Fermanetta it was "Sissa."
In the early 1930's there were a series of dust bowls in which unrelenting winds carried in grist so thick the sky went dark. Kay recalled that when they blew through all of the windows had to be shut. It would have been stifling hot and very dark. She described that they would wet cloths, hold them over their faces and and lie still until the storm passed. Afterwards the home would be thick with dust and grit.
Another memory Kay shared from her girlhood involved crossing a railroad trestle over the Canadian River. She reportedly crossed the trestle with her sister and other young friends, to the high distress of her mother. The drop down to the river bank might have been as much as 25 feet or more should a train have come their way.
In 1937, shortly after Kay's 16th birthday, Ferman died from cancer at the age of 42. It would have been the midst of the depression and they had certainly been living in a lean fashion around that time. However, Kay didn't describe any hunger or extreme lack of necessities during that time. Ferman's work as a school superintendent had supported the family, now a small pension kept them going.
Both Sissa and Kay idolized their father, and came to view their mother as harsh, stern and poorly educated. It grew into a permanent rift between the daughters and their mother.
After Ferman's death, with the small pension, Laura obtained a duplex, lived in one side and rented out the other half. She did this in several cities, somehow even managing to scrimp and save a little here and there. Kay was growing into a beautiful young lady with a warm smile. An old newspaper clipping suggests she entered a beauty contest for "Miss Tierra Blanca, Queen of Buffalo Lake."
She was 21 years old and living in Austen when she met her future husband, Jack Lawrence Mueller. He was in the Air Force in training to be a pilot. They met on a blind date and picnicked on Mount Bonnell which overlooks the city of Austin, Lake Austin and the surrounding hill country. On their second date, Jack proposed marriage. It was wartime and whirlwind courtships were not uncommon. Although Kay was not smitten with Jack (this according to her own account as told to her daughter, Ann) her practical sense determined he would be a good father and so she agreed to marry. Also, she may have, consciously or non-consciously detected similarities between her late father and Jack. Bot had receding hairlines, similar height and weight and both were well educated. Jack and Kay were married on November 6th, 1942 in Memphis, Tennessee. Throughout their marriage, Kay would call Jack, "Daddy".
Sand recalled that as he grew, his mother elevated and even "glorified" him to the degree that he could hardly do wrong. As Sandy (as he was known by family) got older, his haircuts and clothing were all prescribed very specifically by Kay. She make these choices for him, even when he reached an age that he would have had preferences of his own. He recalls starting to rebel against these impositions at an early age.
Kay was always very involved with the Episcopal Church. From services to social guilds she was active in nearly every aspect for the duration of her life. According to Sand, she had a tendency to adore and idolize men such as priests and family physicians...until they screwed up.
She was an amazing cook with a neat and organized kitchen. Sand recalled he and his father helping to clean up. Christmases were a big occasion as Sand recalls - Jack would get someone to dress as Santa Claus and bring over gifts at the last minute. Kay enjoyed music and they listened to records, she liked 40's jazz, show music, and then at Christmas lots of holiday music.
After Sand was born she had trouble conceiving, but later it was rectified by adding progesterone. Sand was 11 when his sister, Ann was born and 14 when his twin brothers, Chris and John were born. Kay was 39 when she had the twins.
Jack and Kay were very social as life progressed. They played golf, hosted bridge, and traveled together even when the twins were little. They had hired help in the home who cared for the twins, a black woman named Claudine White. Kay adored John, the older twin who cried problematically. It was later determined he had very swollen adenoids which affected his speech permanently. The younger twin, Chris, was by some accounts, Kay's favorite child. He was physically sick and small as a child and she took to his vulnerability.
Sand remembers his parents marriage as being loving and respectful. He cannot recall hearing them argue and describes that they always retained communication and shared the value of the church,
In their retirement years, Jack and Kay lived throughout the Southwest: Escondido, California, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Tuscon, Arizona, and Dallas, Texas.
Laura Sawyer died on December 25, 1993. We can't be sure exactly how old she was, as she often lied about her age. She may have been 97, 98 or as old as 99. Longevity ran on the Sawyer side of the family. Jack Mueller died on February 11th, 1994.
Kay and her daughter lived briefly in Sacremento, CA but then they returned to Austin, Texas. Kay was very comfortable there.
Kay was always physically busy. One of the states of the brain, according to Sand, is very active and we move around in our body, as if our body is directing us. Tasks that don't necessarily require cognition or emotion, we tend to just move. Cooking, cleaning, gardening, watering, the home care. She was very artistic, sewing, painting- always busy.
Later in life, living with her daughter Ann, she continued to stay busy. Nearly every afternoon at 4pm she had a single scotch on the rocks. She liked to visit with people that came over but they never went out much. She had a volvo and liked to drive it down to Zilker Park and pick pecans.
When she was close to death, she had some psychic predictions. She lived in a nursing facility after a fall. On one occasion, glasses were ordered for her, and while the staff denied they had arrived, Kay insisted they had. After a series of denials over several days and after inquiries were made, the glasses were found just where she said they were the entire time.
Also during this time she told her daughter Ann, "You will meet a plain man. But he will have $42,000.00." Within a few weeks time, Ann did meet a monastic man who had exactly $42,000.00 in his checking account.
Towards the end of her life, Sand visited her several times. They spoke only a little, mostly sat quietly, holding hands, emoting a gentle, respectful, gratitude.
"We don't need to say anything."
References
Bush, L. (2010) Spoken from the Heart. New York, New York. Scribner.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/30-texas-women/
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