Jodi Helga Lawson

Jodi Helga Lawson of Burbank, California, born 1/29/55 in Los Angeles, CA was the middle sibling to elder sister Heidi and younger brother James (Jim) and she was daughter to the late Robert & Marianne Lawson. She passed away at 71 on July 31st of heart failure due to ongoing intestinal complications.

The family home in the 1950’s was in Burbank, CA where Jodi grew up followed by brief residencies in the early ‘60’s in Las Vegas, NV and North Hollywood before moving back permanently to Burbank in 1962. Just before the family home was sold last year, Jodi moved into a wonderful assisted living community in Burbank, where she and five other residents were tended to by wonderful people. Jodi was very fond of that caring staff there.

Jodi attended Burbank Schools including Stevenson Elementary, Jordan Junior High and finally graduating from John Burroughs High School in 1974. She went on to attend Los Angeles Valley College, graduating with her Associate of Arts Degree in 1981. There she studied music, her lifelong passion, playing with other musicians there as she did while in high school. She served as a Jazz Ensemble Manager at Burrough’s Music Department Spring Festival her senior year of high school. Later when at L.A. Valley College she was in the Valley Opera Club and also performed on guitar at the College’s Music Department Concert Series. Music was her strongest passion. She also had a wonderful collection of guitars and records. She grew up with her siblings and mother loving the Beatles but her tastes evolved from there to Creedence Clearwater Revival and Three Dog Night. She attended concerts for all three and many others as well. Later she was attracted to Blues and bands like Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Savoy Brown. She also enjoyed late ‘70s rock bands and regularly attended the famed Starwood, Roxy and Whiskey night clubs. While embracing many genres, her most recent musical and cultural interest was reggae and the Jamaican lifestyle.

While Jodi had a lifelong learning disability, she didn’t let it slow her down. She always had a small but strong circle of friends who were endeared to her. She was socially engaging, well read and exhibited an intelligence that belied her disability. As a child, she collected plastic toy dinosaurs, mostly from cereal boxes back then and memorized the names of them and others from encyclopedias at home, to the astonishment of her grammar school teachers.

Because of her disability, she was only able to work small part-time jobs but made the best of it and enjoyed her roles at each. She was reliable and trustworthy. She was also very organized and was austere at home. She valued the family archives and photos.

She loved jewelry, healing stones, incense and hippy type clothes. She loved thrift and vintage stores and her daily walks, regularly doing so around Burbank, shortening those walks to her home block as she slowed down in her 60’s. She would greet and get to know the neighbors on those walks and her home was a popular stop on Halloween from the neighborhood kids and their parents who knew her well. She loved summer thunderstorms and especially rainbows, naming each one she saw after someone dear to her who had passed away.

She also really loved swing sets and would go to city parks with her friend Lisa to swing.

And then there was her fondness for birds, namely seagulls, mourning doves, hummingbirds and especially owls, a number of which nested in the family palm tree in the front yard and she named each new one as her pets, often observing them up in that tree between her daily walks. And she also loved butterflies and June Bugs.

Jodi was undaunted in her connectivity, frequently on the phone with family and friends and was a relentless letter writer and greeting card sender. She loved crossword puzzles, word searches and picture puzzles. She would also write to our local paper where she was sometimes published in letters to the editor, due to her strong writing and grammatical skills. She read the local paper daily.

Jodi had a big heart and fondness for others. She laughed a lot but could be serious too. She enjoyed life and her simple daily routines. As she touched many in her special way, the glow she emanated has been called to Heaven now where it’s certainly shining brightly there. However, it will be missed here.

While she had recently endured a difficult hospital stay, she passed away peacefully while sedated at Providence St. Joseph Hospital in Burbank. She is survived by her brother James (Jim) Lawson, nieces Shelby, Marianne and Cara and nephews Charlie, Daniel and John as well as brother-in-law John, many cousins and great nephews and nieces. Her family and friends will convene in Burbank in August for a celebration of life. Donations may be made in her memory to Providence Saint Joseph Foundation, Burbank, CA.