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Memorial Oaks Funeral Home/Bradshaw-Carter Funeral Home/Forest Park East Funeral Home Three of Houston’s longtime residents were remembered this week. Pictured are Lois Wilde (top left), Patricia Mickelis (right), and Thomas Lasseter (bottom left).
This week’s Houston obituaries celebrate the life of a longtime photographer who met her husband when she walked into his studio to take a portrait to send to her mother, the first female Allstate insurance agent in the state of Texas and chemical engineer who became president of the company where she began her career as a process engineer.
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Here are some of the Houston-area residents who will be remembered this week:
Thomas Edward Lasseter, 86
Forest Park East Funeral HomeThomas Lasseter.
Thomas Lasseter died at age 86 on Jan. 19, 2022, in Houston, leaving behind his wife, son, daughter, stepchildren and grandchildren, according to his obituary.
“Despite living many years with Parkinson’s disease and dementia, Tom loved unconditionally and lived his life seeing the best in everyone he knew,” his obituary read. “Her declining health and challenges were met with the grace and dignity that were the hallmarks of her life.”
Lasseter was a native Texan, a student-athlete and alumnus of the University of Texas, and a sports fan. He studied chemical engineering at the University of Texas, the field in which he made his career as an employee of SIP/Parsons (Worley-Parsons), beginning as a process engineer and retiring as president.
“Upon retirement, Tom lent his expertise to friends at Ref-Chem and S and B Constructors. He joined the Houston Executive Service Corps, where he provided pro bono consulting services to local organizations and student groups,” his obituary reads. “Tom enjoyed many years of friendship and many rounds of golf and activities with his cronies, the Bay Oaks Old Boys at Bay Oaks Country Club in Clear Lake.”
He was preceded in death by his wife, Dorothy, his parents, and his nephew.
Luisa Beatrice Wilde, 88
Oaks Lois Wilde Memorial Funeral Home.
Lois Wilde was Allstate’s first female insurance agent in Texas and worked for the company for five decades, her obituary says. He died on January 15, 2022 at age 88 in Houston, leaving behind his two children, seven grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
“She proudly represented Allstate Insurance for more than 50 years and was the first successful female agent in the state of Texas,” her obituary reads. “Well known for her beautiful spirit and good heart. They were all special to her.”
Patricia Canfield Mickelis, 96
Bradshaw-Carter Funeral HomePatricia Mickelis.
Patricia Mickelis liked to say that she was struck by lightning when she took her first photos of her future husband, Nick, and “fell madly in love,” according to her obituary. Nick went into his studio, Photos by Pat, to have his mother’s portraits done in his hometown of Patmos, Greece.
The two married in 1958 and had two children and four grandchildren, who survived Mickelis after her death on January 19, 2022. He was born in North Dakota and moved to Liberty, Texas with his mother and two sisters in 1937. When I was 12 years old. He learned photography from his mother, Ruth, who opened her own studio in Liberty.
“Patricia hand-learned the art of color photography at a young age,” says her obituary. “In 1942, she graduated at the top of her class from Liberty High School. Patricia was an excellent business woman, which was extremely rare for the time”.
Patricia and Nick “raised their family upstairs in the Cleburne Cafeteria on Cleburne Street between Main and Fannin,” their obituary says. “Patricia and her late husband Nick spent their entire lives working side by side at the Cleburne coffee shop, Pat could always be seen at the register helping to move the line.”
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