Obituary of Myrna Lucille Lawson

Myrna Lucille (Smith) Lawson, known to many as “Ceil”, was born December 4, 1926 to Albert Milton and Ivy Ethel (Durham) Smith – the first of 3 children all born in the Durham home, at Bethpage Missouri and all raised at Goodman, Missouri. Lucille and Verl Lawson were married on March 17, 1945 and 2 months later she graduated from high school as class valedictorian. They bought a home in Neosho, Missouri and moved there, where both worked at Cudahy Packing Co. for several years. Lucille had a lifelong love of music, singing, playing piano, steel guitar, guitar and bass. She learned to play guitar at about 8 years old to accompany her dad who played the fiddle. Verl, Lucille and her sister Ruth entered a talent contest at Joplin, Missouri, resulting in an offer to play for a “Barn Dance” the contest sponsors had arranged for every Saturday night on the radio at Miami, Oklahoma. Ruth moved Miami with a couple of performers and began a daily radio show at noon, 6 days a week, on radio KGLC – Miami. Lucille and Verl both worked and drove the 50 miles every Saturday, for the noon radio show and remote broadcast from the big hall at night. They were very popular and received fan mail. This continued about 3 years. When they moved to Shelton, Ruth, Helen and Toby also quit the radio, closed the Barn Dance and joined a traveling show for the next 2 years, traveling all over the United States. They quit their jobs and the show and moved to Shelton, Washington in the spring of 1951, where their son, Roger, was born January 26, 1952. They went back to Neosho in the spring of 1953 and their son Ken, was born there October 19 of that year. “Then!! In the spring of 1960, a scary tornado took out some windows, a lot of shingles off the roof and blew away our small barn, downed a lot of wires over the yard – slight damage for a tornado, but it was enough to scare us back to Shelton that April.” Shortly after returning to Shelton, they began playing with Washington Old Time Fiddlers District 5, at nursing homes occasionally and the RSVP Program, if Verl’s shifts permitted. There were many music parties and camp outs at their home. After Verl retired, they played at every Wednesday with Vern Morgus and the harmonica band at Alpine Way, Maple Glen or Fir Lane. Lucille played for over 20 years with that group. She also played 4 places with the fiddlers, including Northcliff Place. She played Fiddle Fest from the first show until 1993 and did go back for the 25th anniversary. Then performed there once more with Just Us (Ceil, Bill Crabtree, Gus Lester, Greg Lester, Al McClymond and Elizebeth Lawson.) Just Us played together for about 5 years around area at the Mason County Fair, private parties, community events and even at the Corrections Center. Lucille was very active in the Skookum Community. She played volley ball with neighbors at the hall and helped with events held there. When their boys were 10 and 12, they all had Honda trail cycles. They enjoyed camping in the Olympics and riding the logging roads and trails. Sometimes they packed our lunch and rode all day. They all climbed up and visited up in a couple of the fire watch towers. Two brothers worked in one tower in the summer on break from college. Their parents were missionaries overseas. They gave Verl and Roger some envelopes with stamps from their parent’s letters.