Laura Margaret Teller Mason

BURLESON -- Laura Margaret Teller Mason passed away quietly with her family at her side and went to be with her Lord and Savior at the age of 89 on Thursday, April 1, 2010. Celebration of life: 11 a.m. Wednesday at First Baptist Church of Burleson. Interment: Birta Cemetery in Birta, Ark. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Mountain Valley Funeral Home. Laura was born Aug. 15, 1920, in Seadrift. She was the proud daughter of Norwegian-born Karl Martin Teller and Texan Ruth Elvira Madden Teller. She was a loving and caring mother and grandmother. Her father was the lighthouse keeper for the Matagorda Island Lighthouse and Halfmoon Reef Lighthouse. Laura's early years were spent just blocks from the Gulf of Mexico, where she loved the water, swimming daily and cooking fresh crabs with her friends on the shore. The friends she made as a child remained lifelong friends. Her father, mother and five brothers played and made their musical instruments. Laura was the youngest and given the violin. The family enjoyed playing music in the evening. After graduation, Laura took a job in Palacios, where she met and married Donald Mason in December 1941. While Donald was in the Army, they lived in Riverside, Calif., and Spokane, Wash. They settled in San Antonio after the birth of their children and moved to Fort Worth in 1956. Laura Mason was a federal employee and worked at the Fort Worth Federal Depot for many years in the office of contract management. She retired after 30 years of service. After retirement she and Don moved to Whitney, where she worked at the Corps of Engineers. She was very devoted and active in the lives of her children and grandchildren. They were her joy. Laura was a longtime member of First Baptist Church of Burleson. She was active with her Sunday school group and the Prime Timers. When the children were grown, she turned her focus on her community and found time to be an active and lifetime member of the Burleson Town & Country Garden Club where she served as secretary and treasurer for many years. She was a member of the Burleson Eumathian Club. She was an active member in the Historical Society in Burleson. Although it wasn't a club, her closest friends met for the "Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club" for many years in Burleson, where they visited and solved the world's problems. She was preceded in death by her husband, Donald Mason; mother, Ruth Madden Teller; father, Karl Charles Teller; brothers, Lee, Cecil, Herman, Raymond and Frank Teller; and sister, Ruth. Survivors: Son, Donald Mason Jr. and wife, Rita F., of Burleson; daughter, Sheryle Gasparini and husband, John, of Fort Worth; grandchildren, Michael B. Wright Jr. of Albuquerque, N.M., Donald Mason III and wife, Katie, of Denver, Colo., John F. Mason and wife, DaSandra, of Denver, Colo., Amanda Gasparini of Fort Worth, Sabrina Gasparini of Fort Worth; great-grandson, Joshua James Mason of Denver, Colo.; nephew, Charles Teller and wife, Judy, of Bonham; and close family members in Arkansas and Texas as well as in Oslo and Trondheim, Norway.