Kay Francis Lowden Kamp

Kay was a person that always made the best of her situation, no matter what it was. She was a mother first and everything else second. The boys tell stories of loading up in the car and going on picnics at Mount Bonnell and to Sandy’s Ice Cream on Barton Springs. She certainly had her hands full with four boys all around 1 year apart, always having a job and keeping these four hoodlums out of trouble. They lived all over the Austin Area and I think her home was always that house on Burnet Road where her parents lived. Her mother had a beauty shop across the "street" from their family home and it would seem that most things revolved around that area for her. She was proud of going to McCallum High School and I found a picture of her in the 1956 Yearbook. I am sure she had a part in the play that is mentioned in the yearbook called Annie Get Your Gun, although I could find no reference. She and Karl married young and I think life was not always easy for them. She was fiercly protective of her boys, even when they were in trouble; ie: they ran away from home and walked to Lago Vista, they were kicked off the school bus and has to walk home, they set someone's garage on fire, they stole cigarettes and climbed trees to smoke them, they played cowboy's and indians and tried to hang each other, ect, ect. The standing joke in the family is, "Kay's boys". I was certainly in awe of how she ever kept her sanity trying to raise those four. Karl and David talk about how when they were 17 and 18 she would always get mad at them and pin them on the gound. They laughed because they had to let her pin them so they wouldn't end up hurting her. Later as the boys married and she became Granny Kay, she would always have a kid or two around. Escpecially when they had their property in Cedar Creek. She would raise all kinds of animals for the kids and for herself. She loved animals of all kinds.

We all kinda moved away, except for Richard. She never really accepted his death and as a mother myself I can releate. He was her first and she spoke of him all the time.

I think Kay's favorite time in life was the first 5 years she and Karl were at Park on The Lake in Willis, Tx. She did the cleaning for the park and became very close to the owner Cathy. The pictures really do tell the story of the fun she had and the friends that she made there. She was constantly into something or playing bingo. She was always ready and willing for an adventure. Karl and I would stay in the park every chance that we could and she would always get us "the spot next to her". She hated the water, but she was always the first to climb in the boat with us. Perhaps she just hated the water with everyone else. Imagine our suprise when she went tubing with two of her grandchildren and had Jacob take her on the jet ski. She would always have a beer or two with me, was my biggest supporter when I became hooked on ancestry.com, and was always ready to go to another cemetary on one quest or another to find an ancestor. She loved to hang out with us, but never wanted to be a burden to us. Hated it when we thought or knew that she needed money or assistance with anything. Loved it when we had to use her tools to fix something and brought her own ladder to use when we were remodeling our house. Hated to paint, but volunteered to paint the bedrooms for me. She ended up with more paint on her and on the floor than anything else. It was the messiest paint job ever, but I thought it was amazing and still do to this day. She didn't have much but would give you the very last dime she had with a smile and an "i don't need it." She was proud and stubborn, headstrong and loyal. When she liked you, she did, when she didn't like you, you knew it. We loved her and miss her everyday.

Arrangements under the direction of Marrs-Jones-Newby Funeral Home, Bastrop, TX.