Lois Mariam Kearl

Lois Mariam Kearl

December 27, 1924 - August 16, 2020

The daughter of Bruce Angus, an engineer on the Uintah Railroad, and Elisabeth Dow from Tennessee, who migrated to Colorado to teach school, Lois was born at St. Mary's Hospital but lived her first 14 years in Atchee, Colorado, located at the southern base of Baxter Pass. Named after a Ute Indian Chief, Atchee was a maintenance town with a one-room schoolhouse for the Uintah Railroad that hauled gilsonite from mines in Utah to Mack.

In 1938, the Uintah Railroad filed for the abandonment of its entire line forcing the Angus family to move to Mack and eventually Grand Junction in search of work during the Great Depression. Lois went to Fruita, eventually graduating from Grand Junction High School. Several Fruita girls were life-long friends. She had a math scholarship to Penn. State but chose to attend Mesa College (now CMU) during the Second World War. After the war, Lois married Joseph Kearl, a marine veteran of the Pacific War. They had four sons. Lois eventually went to work at the Mesa College business office until her retirement in 1983.

Lois led by example always encouraging and supporting her family. She walked through a burning house to rescue her youngest son hiding. With the help of her oldest son and his wife, Lois took care of her husband until his death in 2009. Her second son and wife made sure Lois was taken care of until her death. The family appreciates the care by the Fountains of Hilltop.

Lois loved to read, cook, play pinochle, and keep up with the computer age.

Her sons and their wives survive her, Sam and Denise Kearl of Midland, Michigan; Jim and Ann Kearl of Grand Junction; Peter and Sonya Kearl of Grand Junction, and Kirk and Kim Kearl of Peoria, Arizona; 11 grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.

Lois will be interred at Veterans Cemetery on September 10 at 12:50. In lieu of flowers, donations to hospice are encouraged.