October 25, 1928 – May 1, 2026\u00a0<\/p>\n
Margaret Lewis Furse died peacefully on Friday, May 1, 2026, in Austin, Texas. A serious intellect, avid reader, author of scholarly books, professor of philosophy of religion, and astute business manager, she was also easy-going, light-hearted and delightful company, right up to the end. The stroke that brought her to the hospital required some questions from the doctors: How old are you? \u201cWell,\u201d she said, \u201copinions differ.\u201d Do you know this person (pointing to one of her children)? \u201cOnly by reputation.\u201d Are you feeling confused? \u201cAlways.\u201d Later, told that a priest would be visiting, her family joked they would make sure he was wearing the proper collar. She was just able to whisper: \u201cAnd a miter,\u201d attempting a gesture of a bishop\u2019s hat.<\/p>\n
Born October 25, 1928, she was the youngest child of Meta Hawkins Lewis and James Claire Lewis. She grew up in Bay City, Texas, a place that formed her, and that she always cherished. Her extended family of aunts, uncles, and cousins were sources of special childhood enjoyment. Margaret began public school with Miss Tenie Holmes, her first-grade teacher and near neighbor, whom she often visited by skipping down the alley, even before starting school. In that small, stable town of 6,300, first-grade classmates were likely to remain friends through high school and often for a lifetime. During World War II, Margaret and her schoolmates sold U.S. war bonds from card tables around the Court House Square, determined to do their part for \u201cthe war effort.\u201d<\/p>\n
She attended Sweet Briar College in Virginia and then the University of Texas at Austin, graduating in 1950 with a B.A. in philosophy, a lifelong interest. She then moved to Houston, where she met Austen H. Furse, Jr., a young attorney, recent veteran and Yale graduate, who, like her, had grown up in a small Texas town. They married in 1955 at St. Mark\u2019s Episcopal Church in Bay City, the same church where her parents had wed in 1917.<\/p>\n
Shortly after their first child Janie was born in 1957, Margaret and Austen moved to New York for graduate study at Columbia University.\u00a0 After Columbia, they moved to Bay City, where Austen practiced law and was elected County Judge of Matagorda County. By 1967, she had earned her Ph.D. and, in addition to Janie, had welcomed three more children: Austen, John, and Mary. Margaret always laughed that with the birth of every baby, she had to take another qualifying academic exam.<\/p>\n
She wrote \u201cMysticism: Window on a World View\u201d, which was used in religious studies courses across the U.S. and Canada. She joined the faculty at Rice University, driving the 80 miles to Houston on class days. When Austen became an Assistant Attorney General of Texas, they moved to Austin. In 1974, she began teaching at the University of Texas. She inaugurated new courses, helped establish a minor in religious studies, and wrote several more academic books until her retirement in 1986.<\/p>\n
Margaret then turned her attention to the cattle operation her forbears had founded in the early 19th century.\u00a0 She wrote \u201cThe Hawkins Ranch in Texas, from Plantation Times to the Present\u201d, published in 2014.\u00a0 She had been encouraged by advice from, among others, Prof. Howard R. Lamar of Yale University, an authority on the American West, including Matagorda County. \u00a0<\/p>\n
In their 55 years of marriage, Margaret and Austen traveled widely. She served on the board of Zach Theater in Austin, was a delegate to the 1972 National Democratic Convention, studied Spanish, followed professional tennis and, with guilty pleasure, the British Royal Family. \u201cMy soap opera with live people,\u201d she called it.<\/p>\n
She was always grateful for her family and forebears, and the possibilities presented by her life\u2019s many gifts. Of these, perhaps the greatest was her uncanny empathy, a warm-hearted super-talent that comforted complete strangers, made a close family, inspired affection, and created deep friendships. One of her characteristic questions, \u201cWell now, what about YOU?\u201d signaled her disposition that everyone deserved her sincere attention. Her kindly power to enter into the feelings of another person was simply extraordinary.<\/p>\n
Margaret was preceded in death by her husband Austen and daughter Janie. She is survived by sons Austen III (Anne) of Houston and John (Susanne Nitter) of London, daughter Mary (William McMillin) of Austin, son-in-law John Friedman of New York, grandchildren Elizabeth Friedman, Meredith Friedman Massey (Bryant), Katherine Furse, Claire Furse, Mae McMillin, and Austen Furse IV, and great-granddaughters Cameron and Avery Massey.<\/p>\n
A funeral service will be held at The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, 3201 Windsor Rd, Austin, TX 78703 on May 18, 2026, at 11:00 am.\u00a0 A burial service will be held at Cedarvale Cemetery, 2293 Golden Ave, Bay City, TX 77414, on May 20, 2026, at 11:00 am.\u00a0 In lieu of flowers, donations are suggested to Matagorda Episcopal Health Outreach Program, a.k.a. Vibrance, and the Bay City Texas Public Library.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"October 25, 1928 – May 1, 2026\u00a0 Margaret Lewis Furse died peacefully on Friday, May 1, 2026, in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,6946],"class_list":["post-295125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-obituaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}