Laurel Christine Lewellen

Laurel Christine Lewellen passed away June 29th, 2024 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease and Frontotemporal Lobe dementia (Pick’s Disease). Laurel passed away at Swedish Hospital in Edmonds, WA after a week of hospice care.

Laurel is predeceased by her beloved husband D. Keith Lewellen, parents Barbara and Donald Hansen, sister Beth Guilbeaux and brother Dana Hansen. She is survived by her sister Julie Bush, brother Mark Hansen, and daughters Kirsten Holmes, Erin Lowe, and Alison Cormier. Laurel was also a wonderful ma’am ma to grandchildren Haley Glass and Ashleigh Christensen, Garrett, Aidan, Sean and Bean Lowe, and Reece and Gavin Holmes, and great grandma to Harper Savage.

Laurel was born Laurel Christine Hansen on July 21, 1945 in Minneapolis, MN, the eldest of five children, to Don and Barbara Hansen. Laurel often spoke of her early years on Lake Minnetonka during the warm summers, and ice fishing and skiing to school during the harsh Minnesota winters. Laurel adored her younger brothers and sisters, often referring to them as “her babies.”

In 1956, the Hansens followed Barbara’s parents, Lorin and Melba Bros, to Ormond Beach, FL where the family remained a short time before moving to Miami, FL. Laurel attended junior high and high school in Miami before the family moved to Lafayette, LA in 1963 where Laurel attended her senior year in high school at Lafayette High graduating in 1964.

Laurel was an accomplished and lauded saxophone player in the Lafayette High School band and University of Southwestern Louisiana (USL now UL - University of Louisiana, Lafayette) marching and concert bands. It was in the marching band at UL where Laurel met her first husband, Lowell Thomas (Tom) Cormier, a trumpet player in the band. Laurel was the president of the Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity and vice president of the UL Marching Band Council in 1967 and 1968.

In 1968, Laurel and Tom married and drove across the country to Los Angeles, CA so that Tom could pursue a career in the music industry. Upon arriving in Los Angeles, Laurel began working at Blue Cross. In 1970, Laurel and Tom returned to Lafayette, LA. where their twins, Kirsten and Erin, were born in early January. Laurel finished her last class at UL and graduated with a BA in music in May 1970.

In 1972, Laurel, Tom, and their twins moved to Atlanta, GA, moving into a townhome community in Jonesboro, GA. Laurel became fast friends with neighbor Evelyn Harte and her family, and they all remained lifelong friends. Laurel was actively involved in the Unitarian Universalist church and the Mother of Twins club. It was during this time that Laurel and Tom got the opportunity of a lifetime - they traveled to Tokyo, Japan for Tom’s work with Yamaha Music Instruments. Laurel and Tom’s youngest daughter Alison was born in 1975 in Riverdale, before the family moved to Decatur, GA for a very short time.

In 1976 Tom was transferred to the Pacific Northwest with Yamaha Music Instruments, so the family, along with their cat Tinkerbell, traveled across the country to make Bellevue, WA their new home. Laurel and Tom’s twins enrolled in elementary school and Laurel was a stay at home mom to Alison. Laurel was active in all aspects of her daughters’ lives, becoming a Girl Scout Brownie Troop leader, a soccer referee coordinator, PTSA president, and Laurel and Tom were both instrumental in planning and putting on the Ardmore Elementary Halloween Carnival, band and orchestra concerts, and other after school events.

In 1983, Laurel went to work for the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) as an undercover investigator with a group of people who were among Laurel’s closest friends: Kathy Battiste, Leslie Batman, Harriett Frazelle, Keith Lewellen, Kathy Bratton, Jan Torge, Lori LeMay, and Tim Yusko, to name just a few. Laurel was offered a full time permanent position with the liquor board in 1985 and went on to become Loss Prevention Manager.

In 1988, Laurel and her daughter Alison moved onto a 65’ Chris-Craft cruiser named the Dahlhalla with Keith Lewellen. Laurel and Keith, along with Kirsten, Erin and Alison, went on many cruises aboard the Dahlhalla through Lake Washington, Seward Bay, The Bainbridge Island Outpost, through the Ballard Locks and out into Puget Sound. Laurel and Keith joined the Tyee Yacht Club and made many new friends there where they enjoyed fishing, crabbing, and dancing.

In 1992, Laurel became WSLCB Employee of the Year, and shortly after Laurel and Keith Lewellen were married in front of friends Jim and Mora Huether, Havis Ratterree, Laurel’s three daughters, and her mother Barbara, in the rose garden at the Ballard Locks.

In 1995, the Dahlhalla became a cumbersome, never ending project, so Keith and Laurel moved off their beloved boat to an apartment in North Seattle before finally settling in Everett, WA in 2000.

In 1997, Laurel’s daughter Alison gave birth to her first daughter, Haley, at Incirlik Air Base in Adana, Turkey. Laurel and her mother Barbara traveled across the world to welcome Haley, Laurel’s first grandchild and Barbara’s first great grandchild. Between 1999 and 2012, Laurel would become ma’am ma to seven more grandchildren.

In later years, Laurel enjoyed learning about her Swedish heritage and meeting distant cousins, many of whom had the family name of “Christine” as Laurel did. Laurel shared family keepsakes and photos with many cousins, and took a trip with her mother and sisters back to Minneapolis, MN for a Sandgren family reunion. Those relationships Laurel made were treasured by her for the rest of her life.

In March of 2015, after a fall and short illness, Laurel’s husband Keith passed away peacefully surrounded by Laurel and her family. In December of 2018, Laurel was diagnosed with stage 4 Alzheimer’s Disease. In August of 2019, Laurel moved into an assisted living facility in Kenmore, WA. The USA was locked down due to COVID in March 2020, and it was during this isolation that Laurel’s disease advanced rapidly. In 2021, Laurel began to lose the ability to speak and was also diagnosed with Pick’s (FTD) disease. In 2022, Laurel was moved to memory care where she continued to decline and became confined to a wheelchair, eventually succumbing to Alzheimer’s and FTD related causes.

There will be a private, family service on November 1st, 2024 at Evergreen Washelli in North Seattle. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Laurel’s memory to the Alzheimer's Association Alzheimer’s Association - Donate or The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD): AFTD - Donate. These organizations use donations to fund critical research and provide support for those impacted by dementia-related diseases.