Lura Andrews

Lura M. Andrews, better known as "Skippy," age 91, passed away in comfort and love at her assisted living residence in Topeka, Kansas, on the morning of Tuesday, February 1st, 2022.

Lura was born October 5th, 1930, in Blackwell, Oklahoma to Chester and Inez Stouder. She Attended Gage Grade School and graduated from Boswell Junior High in 1945, and Topeka High School in 1948. As a child, some of her best memories were of her summertime visits to Satanta, KS, enjoying friends and family there.

In 1951 she was married to Donald E. Johnson in the Danforth Chapel on the University of Kansas campus. In 1952 she graduated from the University of Kansas with a BFA in Fine Arts, Commercial Art. In 1956 she gave birth to her only child, a daughter, Tamara.

In the mid-sixties she married Richard G. Andrews who was very much an outdoorsman. From that point forward, weekends were spent camping and boating at local lakes such as Tuttle Creek, Milford, and Perry. Yearly vacations were spent traveling.

Once retiring from the Veterans Administration Hospital here in Topeka, KS, after over 33 years serving as the Art Therapist with her own department providing veteran patients therapy in the way of drawing, painting with oils/acrylics/watercolor, pottery, lapidary, leatherwork, and all manner of expression – she and her husband Rick traveled a great deal, something that they both enjoyed immensely. Rick had also worked at the V.A. for over 33 years. And rocks! They loved to collect rocks, crystals, and minerals from wherever they went. Once, while heading back homeward, in crossing back over the Rockies, they actually had to disconnect the truck from their motorhome to get over the pass with all they had gathered!

Skippy, my cherished mother, enjoyed a full and enriching life. She was a very talented artist, an avid dog lover, a most loving mother and daughter herself, and was full of adventure, humor, and wisdom. She is survived by me, her daughter Tamara, and some extended family that reside elsewhere.

Having given it much introspective and gentle thought, I've decided as her daughter, not to have a formal ceremony at this time. With her having outlived most everyone she's known in the area, and we had discussed it, she would be very happy to see just a simple graveside ceremony whenever I felt it was time to commit her ashes to the ground. I feel it would be rushing it to do it just yet, aside from it being wintertime as well. I want the earth to be warm and welcoming for her when the time comes. For now, it would make the both of us very happy to just have her reside with me for a spell.

As to donations, any given to the Helping Hands Humane Shelter of Topeka, Kansas, the ASPCA, or the Wounded Warrior Project, would please her very much.

We are but spiritual beings, having been gifted a human experience. It is not meant to be a permanent state of being, and our bodies are but our vehicle to carry us through it. It is because of this impermanence, this life is all the more precious, and all the more precious due to those we share the experience with.

Dove Southwest Chapel is assisting with arrangements.

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