Laura Reed Dyke "Lollie" Jackson

1936 - 2015

Laura "Lollie" Reed Dyke Jackson
1936-2015
Laura "Lollie" Reed Dyke Jackson passed away Monday, January 19th, 2015. She was at home with her family, birds, kitty and gardens surrounding her. Lollie was born in 1936 in Austin, Texas. Her parents were Irene Ruth Reed and Richard Burt Dyke. Her father taught Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and wrote music, including lullabies for his children. Her mother, she remembers, "put her on a horse when she was three years old" at Hobby Horse Stable, owned by Mary Helen and Jimmy Burr. One of her favorite memories was taking the horses to Bull Creek and Barton Springs in the Summer and swimming with the horses with her brother, Dick, and sisters Ruth and Susan, and holding onto their tails, letting the horses pull them through the water as they swam. Lollie grew up traveling with her cherished grandmother, Laura Moses Reed. There were trips to Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, and one Christmas spent in New York City at the Plaza Hotel. Much of the time spent with her grandparents was at their home on 14th Street in Austin, which is now restored and the home for Humanities Texas.
Lollie attended school in Austin, including Austin High, where she was a Red Jacket. When
she graduated, she went to Mills College in California, returning after a year to the University of Texas. Lollie joined the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority at the University. She met and married John Hamman, III and moved to Houston where she had her daughters, Laura and Elizabeth.
Her love of animals came to her early and naturally. In addition to the horses she had as a child, including her beloved White Cliffs of Dover and Geronimo, she grew up with dogs. When she moved to Houston, she had a German Shepherd that was her constant companion. Her love of animals was nurtured and influenced by her friendship with Jack Staub who had a deep connection to Mexico. He shared his knowledge of both birds and plants with Lollie, and she began a new life of intense study and passion for both. What began with small parrots living in her home as family, eventually led to a backyard filled with aviaries of birds of all kinds. Her Scarlet Macaws, Maximilian and Carlota would fly around the neighborhood and return to the backyard to be retrieved with the help of Elizabeth. Lollie's love of animals also included a slow loris, a three toed sloth, an ocelot, Nene goose, and an emu.
What had been a traditional style yard in the Memorial area of Houston, was slowly transformed into a wonder of plants native to both Texas and Mexico. Many plants were collected on trips made around the state and in the remote areas of Mexico. In one of her journeys, Lollie found a species of Salvia that had been undiscovered. It was then named for her, "Salvia Lollie Jackson". She started her own landscaping company, International Wildlife and Wildflower Corporation of America, Inc., (IWWCA). She worked with her treasured friend and mentor, Will Fleming, creating gardens that in her words provided and alternative to the "green deserts" that were common. She wanted to "follow Spring around the world," thus all of her gardens were designed so that no matter what time of year, there was always a plant in bloom.
Her world was filled with many interests and friends. She came to know many artists and loved conversations with them about art and the nature of things. Lollie published a book called the "Master of Knives" with the artwork of Lucas Johnson and poetry of C. W. Truesdale. Her passion for art led to lifelong friendships as well as a collection of work that is intensely personal to her because of those relationships.
Lollie is preceded in death by her beloved grandparents, Dave Reed and Laura Moses Reed, her parents Ruth Irene Reed and Richard Burt Dyke, her brother Richard Burt Dyke, Jr, her sister, Susan Reed Dyke Paulette, her nephew Richard Lee Dyke and Callie Jackson. She is
survived by her daughters, Laura Frances Hamman Fain, Elizabeth Reed Hamman Oliver, her husband Morgan Dene Oliver and their daughters Isabelle Hamman Oliver, Emma Lenoir Oliver, her sister Ruth Reed Dyke, her daughter Susan Marie Levinson, her granddaughters Jessica Sherman and her husband Shane Sherman, Heather Levinson, and Sierra Sky Blue, her niece Noelle Eos Subois Paulette and her daughter Peyton Lee Paulette, brother David Hall, her cousin Rita Reed George and her son Brian George. Lollie had friends she loved dearly, including her childhood friend Mike Roche, who was like a brother to her, and Bette Craddock
Linbeck who was like a sister to her, and her Houston friends Forrest Prince, Gayle Degeurin and Annie Deguerin.
For those wishing to make memorial contributions please do so to the Peckerwood Garden Foundation, the Rothko Chapel, or The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.
The funeral service is to be conducted at ten o'clock in the morning on Saturday, the 24th of January, at St. David Episcopal Church, 301 E. 8th Street, Austin, Texas 78701.
The interment will follow, via an escorted cortege, at Austin Memorial Park Cemetery.