Constance L. Lawless

Constance (Coni) Lawless passed away in to the loving arms of our Savior on April 10, 2015, after a terrific struggle against the scourge of cancer. She was born on October 1, 1945 in York, Pennsylvania to Faye Elizabeth Pickel, and William Fordyce Thompson. Coni spent her early years on the family farm in Brogue, Pennsylvania that gave her a dislike of chickens she never overcame. She attended a one-room school house until her mother moved her and her sister to Akron, Ohio. Coni was a beautiful young lady who won many beauty contests to include being selected as Miss Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and ranked high in the Miss Ohio contest. While attending the University of Akron where she was a member of Phi Mu sorority, she met the love of her life Bernie Lawless. They were married in 1968 at Fort Polk, Louisiana, and thus began a military career that spanned over 30 years. She experienced and enjoyed the trials of being an Army wife (or " Dep W" as the Army refers to service wives) with a smile on her face. Always faced with the task of moving household and kids on very short notice, she became an expert in knowing how to make the best of any situation. They traveled all over the world, and lived in such diverse places as Berlin, Germany; Mexico City, Mexico; and Misawa, Japan. She often said if someone could live half the life she had they would have lived a full life. Coni was a terrific fighter who overcame a Liver Transplant and fought an incurable cancer. She always kept a positive outlook, and with the help of the Oncology Department at Brooke Army Medical Center, especially Dr. Jason Barnett, Eve, and Lisa, was able to enjoy a quality of life in her final years. It enabled her to continue to raise and thoroughly enjoy her grandchildren whom she had raised since birth. Coni was preceded in death by her beloved mother Faye, her father Ford, and is survived by her husband of 46 years Col. (ret) Bernard J. Lawless, their children Theresa Faye Lawless, and Thomas Joseph Lawless, her sister Ruth Lehman of Red Lion, Pennsylvania, her brother William Thompson of Cullowhee, North Carolina, and her grandchildren Trai Anthony Tolle son and Jade Sierra Helena Lawless. There will be a service at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery at 10:15 on April 23, 2015, and an additional service in early June, 2015 in Brogue, Pennsylvania