Laura Thorpe Austin

Laura Mary Thorpe Austin of Cocoa Beach died Wednesday, Nov. 9, at Health First Hospice House in Palm Bay. She was 98 years young.

Born in Jacksonville, Mrs. Austin attended Orlando High School and earned an associate’s degree from Florida Southern College in Lakeland. She moved to Brevard County in the 1950s. For the last 20 years of her life, she lived in the house her father built in the 1940s in Cocoa Beach.

The mother of seven children, Mrs. Austin worked hard all her life, ensuring that her sons and daughter could attend college. She was equally generous – or more so – with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She never forgot a birthday, and she was proud of each of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, even when they weren’t perfect. An only child, she often told her large family that most of them had one special gift that she never did: brothers and sisters.

Over the past 50 years, she saw most of the astronaut parades from her back yard on South Atlantic Avenue, which is also where her family gathered for 4th of July and Thanksgiving dinners for the past 50 years. She fed the birds and sand crabs in her front yard every morning at sunrise and enjoyed watching cruise ships leave Cape Canaveral in the late afternoons.

For many years, Mrs. Austin worked at Belk Lindsey in Byrd Plaza in Cocoa, as well as Vicki Vogue boutique in Merritt Square Mall before retiring in the 1990s. She leaves behind several long-time friends, including Mary Louise and Lois.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Wilbur and Nellie Thorpe, and her oldest son, Nicholas Sean Austin.

She is survived by one daughter and son-in-law, Susie Austin Preskitt and Carl Preskitt of Port St. John, as well as five sons and three daughters-in-law: Hugh Thorpe Austin of Melbourne; Philip Austin of Ft. Pierce; Dale and Nancy Austin of Tallahassee; Dick and Loretta Austin of Kennesaw, Ga.; and Mike and Susanne Austin of Pinellas Park.

Her grandchildren include Laura Austin Clemons of Tennessee; Hugh Thorpe Austin Jr. of Orlando; Sandra Austin Mello of Oakland, Calif.; Will Austin of Tennessee; Phyllis Austin-Risq of Ft. Lauderdale; Barbie Austin Nettles of Tallahassee; Dale Austin of Tallahassee; Steve Preskitt of Orlando; Kimberly Preskitt Joyner of Auburndale; Jessica Austin Northrop of Delray Beach; Zachary Austin of Kennesaw, Ga.; Daniel Austin of Pope AFB; Sarah Austin Guffey of Pinellas Park; and Leah Austin Rhodes of Melbourne.

Mrs. Austin was also the great-grandmother of 22 children. On the day she died, her first great-great grandchild was born.

Mrs. Austin’s pallbearers will be her six grandsons. Visitation begins at 10 a.m., Monday, Nov. 14, at Wiley-Baxley Funeral Home in Merritt Island, and the funeral service begins at 11 a.m. Interment will be at Florida Memorial Gardens in Rockledge.

Arrangements under the direction of Wylie-Baxley Funeral Home, Merritt Island, FL.