Lois Bellows

Lois was born in Dallas, Texas on the 31st of October 1925. She grew up in Shamrock, in the Panhandle of Texas, where she spent much time at the Norwood Ranch with her cousins. Her family also made frequent trips to her Dubose grandparents in Palestine, Texas. She graduated from Shamrock High School, and Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. She attended The University of Texas in Austin where she pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma. Lois met Vernon Livingston Miller on a blind date to a UT football game, and they became engaged over the summer at the cabin in the Gallinas Canyon, New Mexico. They married the following Thanksgiving and moved to Houston. Lois was embraced by the Miller and Livingston families. Vernon and Lois had 36 years of happy marriage. Seventeen years after Vernon’s death, Lois married George Ferris Bellows, extending her family ever larger as she was loved and included as a member of the Bellows family. Loving and nurturing her family was Lois’ priority.

Lois will be remembered for her gentle, loving, and generous nature. As a teen at Camp Waldemar, she received the “Ideal Girl” award for outstanding character. She continued to embrace ideals of caring, compassion, and integrity throughout her life. Lois was a leader and president of organizations to which she devoted her time: the Sustainers Club of the Junior League of Houston, Houston Kappa Kappa Gamma Alumnae, and the River Oaks Garden Club. It was her membership at First Presbyterian Church, however, that was most important to her. She served as an Elder, a Stephens Minister, a member of the Prayer Chain, the Flower Guild and of the Sarah Circle.

She is survived by her four children, their spouses and her grandchildren, Margaret Ruth Miller Brill and husband Wayland, and daughter, Clara Evelyn; Melissa Wren Miller and husband Bill Kennedy, their daughters Nell Kennedy and husband Darren Hoff, and Greer Ann Kennedy; Laurie Miller Stephens and husband Richard, and their children Brian Miller Stephens and Melissa Ruth Stephens Branson and husband Jeremy Branson; Vernon DuBose Miller and his children Jonathan Dubose Miller and Apryl Margaret Miller; and her stepchildren Wayne Harris Bellows and his wife Laura, and Marilyn Leigh Bellows and her husband Doug Edmondson. She is also survived by her loving sister, Ruth Norwood DuBose Kendrick and her daughters, Betsy Chamberlain and Kathryn Bowen and their husbands, children and grandchildren, to whom she was known as Lolo.

Lois was preceded in death by her parents, Frank Fitzpatrick and Ruth Willis Norwood DuBose; her husband, Vernon Livingston Miller, and husband, George Ferris Bellows.

The family would like to thank Lois’ caregivers Ofelia Zamora, Angelina Segura, Crystal Styers and Diane Harding for their loving attention and support.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from five o’clock in the afternoon until seven o’clock in the evening, on Wednesday, the 30th of March, in the Library of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering Drive in Houston.

The memorial service is to be conducted at two o’clock in the afternoon on Thursday, the 31st of March, at the First Presbyterian Church of Houston, 5300 Main Street in Houston, where the Rev. Dr. Bill Heston will officiate. Immediately following the service, all are invited to greet the family during a reception at the church.

Prior to the service, the immediate family will have gathered for a private interment at Glenwood Cemetery.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family respectfully requests that contributions be given to The Bayou Bend Gardens Endowment, c/o Bayou Bend, PO Box 6826, Houston, TX, 77265-6826; First Presbyterian Church, 5300 Main, Houston, TX 77004; or the AD Players Building Fund, 2710 West Alabama, Houston, TX, 77098; or the charity of one’s choice.