Joan Wheless Lawson

Joan Wheless Lawson went to be with our Lord on July 21, 2026 at the age of 91.

A Celebration of Joan's Life will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, July 27, 2026, at Cox-Rowley Funeral Home Chapel, with Loran Harper officiating. Burial to follow at Llano East Cemetery.

The family will receive friends during a visitation from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, July 26, 2026, at Cox-Rowley Funeral Home, 4180 Canyon Drive, Amarillo, Texas 79109.

Joan was born on February 18, 1935 to Rodger Sherman and Margaret Allen Wheless in Seagraves, TX. After several moves they landed in the Borger, Texas area in 1945 where she finished her schooling. She then met Donald Eugene Lawson while working at Sutphen' s Barbeque in Phillips, TX. They were married in Clayton, NM on Jan 30, 1953. They settled in Borger, TX and in 1955 had their first son Randel Alan. Two years later they welcomed their only daughter Donna Jo. In 1965 they had another son, Gregory Wayne. Along the way they built their family home. Joan worked right along-side Don measuring, hammering, taping, and painting etc. They lived in that house until moving to Amarillo in 2000 to be closer to medical facilities. Don passed away in 2008 and Joan lived at The Craig for the rest of her life.

She was a homemaker though she periodically had outside jobs: a checker at Ideal grocery, a clerk at the stamp store, and a cook at Phillips school, among others but her passion was to make a home. She was an excellent cook and kept an immaculate house. She was an avid sports spectator. From her sons’ little league games and her grandchildren’s sports to the big leagues. She loved watching Randy and Greg play baseball, Jason play baseball and soccer, Lynzee play softball and volleyball, and Lynzee, Natalie, and Whitney dance. She loved the Dallas Cowboys and Patrick Mahomes with the Kansas City Chiefs, the Texas Rangers, the Houston Astros, and all sports Texas Tech. She loved all things nature. Sunsets, flowers, trees and their changing colors, rain and snow but not storms. She loved to play board games and was very competitive, just ask any grandchild! An avid bird watcher, she developed a special love of hummingbirds and she had a good size collection of all things hummingbird. She collected quilts, teapots and tea sets, and family pictures. She enjoyed taking pictures but apparently not being in them. Joan loved camping in the mountains of Colorado. She and Don immensely enjoyed their two trips to Alaska, once while bringing along Jason and Lynzee. From mountains to really big mountains she enjoyed all the flora and fauna on the trips.

Preceding her in death were her parents, her husband Don, her very special granddaughter Melissa Dyan Lowe, her brothers Milton, Jimmy Ray, Wayne, Sonny and her sisters Joyce Hannon, Patsy Sims, Mary Nell Wheless, as well as her daughter in law Sally Word Lawson.

Left to keep her memory alive are her sons Randy Lawson of Marlow, OK and Greg Lawson of Bryan TX and her dutiful daughter Donna Lowe and her husband Dale of Amarillo, TX. Her four precious grandchildren Lynzee Lowe Oden and her husband Justin of Amarillo, TX, Jason Lawson and his wife Heather of Norman, OK, Natalie Lawson of Bryan, TX, and Whitney Lawson Lord and her husband Jackson of Fort Worth, TX. As well as her great grandchildren Christian Oden of Goose Creek, S.C., Peyton Oden, Declan Oden, and Jolee Oden of Amarillo, TX, and Neil Lawson and Brooke Lawson of Norman, OK.

In lieu of flowers please consider donating to Christian Relief Fund or Samaritan’s Purse.