Margaret Lewis Furse

Margaret Lewis Furse died peacefully on Friday, May 1, 2026, in Austin, Texas. A professor of the philosophy of religion, author of several scholarly books, an avid reader with an enormous library, and an astute business partner of a Texas ranching operation, she was also easygoing, light-hearted, and delightful company, right up to the end. The stroke that brought her to the hospital required some simple questions from medical attendants: How old are you? “Well,” she said, “opinions differ.” Do you know this person (pointing to one of her children)? “Only by reputation.” Are you feeling confused? “Always.” Nearing the end, she was told that a priest would be coming. Her family joked that they would make sure he was wearing the proper collar. She was just able to whisper the words “And a miter,” attempting a gesture of a bishop’s hat.

Born October 25, 1928, she was the youngest child of Meta Hawkins Lewis and James Claire Lewis, and grew up and went to school in her place of birth, Bay City, Texas. While her immediate family consisted only of her parents and her older brother, Frank Hawkins Lewis, her extended family of aunts, uncles, and young cousins were sources of special childhood enjoyment.

Margaret began public school with Miss. Tenie Holmes, her first-grade teacher and near neighbor, whom she often visited by skipping down the alley, even before starting school. Bay City in the pre-World War II years of her childhood was a town of about 6,300 and so stable in population that a first-grader’s classmates were likely to be friends through high school and often for a lifetime. During World War II, when Margaret and her schoolmates were teenagers, they were instructed in how to sell U.S. savings stamps and war bonds from card tables stationed around the Courthouse Square. They and their supervising adults were bent on doing whatever they could for the “war effort.”

In 1949, after high school, Margaret followed the example of her cousin Martha Rugeley and went first to Sweet Briar College in Virginia and then to the University of Texas at Austin. There she was a member of the sorority Kappa Alpha Theta, played golf with the Tee Club, and in 1950, graduated with a B.A. in philosophy, a lifelong interest.

After college, like many of her classmates, she went to find a job in a big city, Houston. There she worked in the First National Bank, posting installment loans by hand, as was done then. The post-war Houston social scene in the 1950s was brisk with many social occasions to reconnect with college or summer camp friends, or to meet other young graduates. She met Austen H. Furse, Jr., a young Houston attorney, a recent veteran and graduate of Yale, who, like her, had grown up in a small Texas town. In 1955, she and Austen were married at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, Bay City, where, in 1917, Margaret’s parents had also married.

Shortly after their first child Janie was born in 1957, Austen and Margaret went to Columbia University in New York for graduate study; he for a Master of Laws degree, she to start on a doctorate in philosophy of religion. By 1967, she had earned her PhD and, in addition to Janie, had welcomed three more children: Austen, John, and Mary. Margaret always laughed that with the birth of every baby, she had to take another qualifying academic exam. When Margaret and Austen finished their studies at Columbia, they moved from Houston to Bay City, Texas, where Austen practiced law and was elected County Judge of Matagorda County, and Margaret reunited with family and school friends.

Margaret’s Columbia dissertation became a published text, “Mysticism: Window on a World View,” which was used in religious studies courses in several U.S. and Canadian universities. She was recruited to teach part time in the new Department of Religious Studies at Rice University in Houston. Living in Bay City, she drove eighty miles to and from Houston on her class days. The family moved to Austin in 1970, when her husband accepted a position as an Assistant Attorney General of Texas.

In 1974, Margaret joined the faculty of American Studies at the University of Texas and inaugurated several new courses. She was instrumental in organizing and offering courses for a minor in religious studies for the University’s College of Liberal Arts. She contributed articles to theological journals, was a member of the American Association of Religion, and, in time, wrote several more books in the academic field of religion until her retirement in 1986.

Her attention was then drawn to her family’s Matagorda County ranch, the Hawkins Ranch – a 19th century property stemming from her mother’s family. Since Margaret’s early childhood, the ranch has been a gathering place for weekend and seasonal holidays with her aunts, uncles, and cousins. She and her brother Frank Lewis, the manager, were now partners in its ownership. In time they would be joined by their respective children – four Lewis siblings and four Furse siblings. The eight cousins were playmates and friends, often at the ranch together, growing up together to manage the business.

Margaret and Austen, who were married for 55 years, enjoyed extensive travel both with their children and as a couple. Theater was a special interest of Margaret and her whole family. She served on the board of Zach Theater in Austin for several years. Through her husband, politics became an interest; she was fascinated and delighted to be chosen as a delegate to the National Democratic Convention of 1972, casting her vote for Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson, and she retained an interest in politics thereafter.

She was an ardent tennis fan, student of Spanish, and loyal book club member. One interest that made her laugh, confessionally, was keeping up with the British Royal family. It was her “soap opera with live people,” she said. Love of family, of friends, and of intellectual inquiry were central pursuits. These elements are expressed in the book she wrote in 2014, about her ranching family: “The Hawkins Ranch in Texas, from Plantation Times to the Present.” She had been encouraged by advice from, among others, Prof. Howard R. Lamar of Yale University, an authority on the American West, including Matagorda County.

A clue to her personality is seen in the closing sentence of her book, which sketched an arc from antebellum Texas to the stewardship of the early 20th century “Lady Ranchers,” to the present day. She wrote “’I think we will make a pretty place of it,’ were the words of James B. Hawkins while building the Hawkins Ranch House in 1854, and today the generations who enter its gate find themselves with the appreciative reply— and you certainly did.”

She was always grateful for her family and forebears, her life’s many gifts, and the possibilities they presented her. “Broaden your horizons,” she would tell her children. With her ingenious skills of empathy – “Well, now. What about YOU?” -- she would give heart to others to “make a pretty place” of whatever their circumstances happened to be.

Once, traveling with Austen in Soviet Russia in the 1960s, their Russian tour guide felt she could confide in Margaret her troubled life’s secrets. No doubt she sensed that Margaret’s typical mode was that everyone deserved her well-meant attention.

Of all her gifts, perhaps the greatest was this unmatched empathy, a warm-hearted super-talent that comforted complete strangers, made a close family, inspired affection, and created deep friendships. Her kindly power to enter into the feelings of another person was simply extraordinary.

Margaret was preceded in death by her husband Austen and daughter Janie. She is survived by her sons Austen III (Anne) of Houston and John (Susanne Nitter) of London, daughter Mary (William McMillin) of Austin, and son-in-law John Friedman of New York; by grandchildren Elizabeth Friedman, Meredith Friedman Massey (Bryant), Katherine Furse, Claire Furse, Mae McMillin, and Austen Furse IV; by great-granddaughters Cameron and Avery Massey, and by many other treasured relatives and friends.

A funeral service will be held at The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, 3201 Windsor Rd, Austin, TX 78703 on May 18, 2026, at 11:00 am. A burial service will be held at Cedarvale Cemetery, 2293 Golden Ave, Bay City, TX 77414, on May 20, 2026, at 11:00 am. In lieu of flowers, donations are suggested to Matagorda Episcopal Health Outreach Program, a.k.a. Vibrance, and the Bay City Texas Public Library.