Laura Mabee

(From Lockwood Funeral Chapel)

Laura Lee (Westbay) Mabee, of Lockwood, MO, departed this life on Saturday, May 2, 2026, in her home at the age of 92.

She was born on November 17, 1933 to Warren Reid and Elsie Fern (Storey) Westbay. She grew up in Gary, Indiana, the youngest child not only of Warren and Elsie but of all her cousins. Laura attended Ambridge Grade School and was baptized in the Christian Church. As a teen, she joined the United Methodist Church. She graduated from Horace Mann High School and went on to the Indiana University Extension program and then Christian College in Columbia, Missouri. There she met Clarence Mabee, a young man Laura called God’s gift to her.

Laura and Clarence exchanged letters while he continued his studies at the University of Missouri and she worked at a service desk for North Central Airlines in Chicago. On September 4, 1954, the two were united in marriage in Columbia. Clarence describes Laura as the kindest woman he’s ever known and a lady in every sense of the word.

After the wedding, Laura worked at a travel office in Columbia while Clarence completed his veterinary medicine program. Upon his graduation, they settled down in Clarence’s hometown of Lockwood, Missouri. Laura was instrumental in the running of Clarence’s veterinary practice, and the two of them were blessed with three children William Reid, Linda Lou, and Carol Lynn.

Laura and Clarence raised their family in the Methodist Church. She served the community through UMC youth programs and the PTA, as well as Lockwood’s Business & Professional Women’s Club, which named her the 1969 Woman of the Year. Laura once gave a devotional at a Progressive Homebuilders Extension Club meeting “stressing the fact that what we need in our modern day is more faith.”

Over the years, Clarence and Laura traveled in their motor home through several states, including Alaska. As much as Laura loved to see the world, she considered the best times of her life the ones spent at home, when her and Clarence’s children and their families came to visit, swim, fish, shoot fireworks, and play games. As Laura put it, “Poppy and Granny truly loved their family gatherings.” Her children remember her devotion to making sure everyone enjoyed themselves, in particular her enthusiasm in crafting scavenger hunts for the grandchildren.

Laura was preceded in death by her parents and her brother, Charles “Chuck” Westbay. She is survived by her loving husband of seventy-one years, Clarence Mabee of Lockwood; son Bill Mabee of Columbia; daughter Linda (Craig) Lynch of Joplin; daughter Carol Jones of St. Louis; granddaughter Ashley (Matt) McConnell and their children Rhodes, Rhett, and Rhory of Joplin; granddaughter Whitney Lynch of Greenville, South Carolina; grandson Drew (Grace) Jones and their children William and Adelaide of St. Louis; and grandson Nick Jones of St. Louis.

Graveside services will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 7, 2026, at Lockwood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the Dade County Senior Center. Services are under the care of Lockwood Funeral Chapel.