Kathryn A. Lawson

In Evansville on November 11, 1918, as residents celebrated the Armistice of World War I with church bells, factory whistles, songs and cheers, on St. Joseph Avenue, excitement focused on Aaron and Lottie Wills’ new daughter, Kathryn Amelia.

Kathryn attended Evansville schools and began her career here. She graduated from Bosse High School in 1935 and from Evansville College in 1939. Joining her older sister and brother already teaching in the Evansville School System, Kathryn began as a physical-education instructor at Fulton School in 1939 and moved to her alma mater, Bosse High School, in 1941, to teach girls’ P. E. During summers of 1938 and 1940, she took graduate courses at Columbia University.

Then, in January 1942, Kathryn joined the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, soon known as Women’s Army Corps. After basic training at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia, Kathryn entered officers’ training at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, receiving her commission as second lieutenant in April 1943. The following September, she returned to Fort Oglethorpe and served as commanding officer over at least 12 companies, including one company of African-American women from New York slated for Army medical positions. She earned promotion to first lieutenant in June 1944. Following the war, Kathryn joined Army Reserves, attended Indiana University to earn her master’s degree, and returned to Bosse High School to teach.

Recalled to active service during the Korean War, Captain Wills was stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis. There she met an enlisted man, Harold “Dick” Lawson. Because of Army regulations forbidding fraternization between officers and enlisted forces, the couple conducted a secret courtship for over a year and married on April 5, 1952. Kathryn and Dick maintained their secret by arriving at work each morning in separate cars—a practice they continued until Dick’s transfer to Greenville, Mississippi, in summer 1953, which led Kathryn to resign from the Army to follow her husband.

The Lawsons and their two children lived at military bases in the U.S., Germany, and Japan until 1968 when they moved to Chanute Air Force base in Illinois. In 1969 Kathryn began work in civil service on the base, where she remained until the base closed. At the end of her career she served as a training specialist supervising as many as 20 instructors. In 1993 Kathryn and Dick moved to Newburgh where Kathryn looked after Dick during his last illness.

Kathryn was nearly a life-long member of Trinity United Methodist Church, having joined in 1928; her children and grandchildren continue at Trinity. In recent years, she enjoyed solving Sudoku puzzles, crocheting, and knitting. She donated her handmade baby blankets, scarfs, and afghans to charitable organizations.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Dick Lawson; parents; sister, Carolyn Wills; and brother, James Wills. Survivors include a daughter, Kathryn (Bill) Bartelt; a son, Richard (Karen) Lawson; and grandchildren Kaitlyn, Jonathan, and Megan Lawson—all of Newburgh.

Funeral Services will be held at 10:00 AM on Monday, July 27, 2015, at Alexander Newburgh Chapel officiated by Dr. Todd Gile with burial in Tupman Cemetery. Friends may visit Sunday, from 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM and Monday, 9 AM until service time at the funeral home.

Memorial contributions may be made to Trinity United Methodist Church.