Kathleen Louise Dawson

Kathleen Louise Patterson Turner Dawson, 78, of Rison, died Sunday, December 27, 2009 at Jefferson Regional Medical Center. She was born March 06, 1931, at Shaver, Boone County, Arkansas, a daughter of the late William Van Dyke and Martha Minnie Harry Patterson. A graduate of Alpena High School, Arkansas Polytechnic College and the University of Arkansas, she moved to Rison in 1953 to serve as County Home Demonstration Agent with the Agricultural Extension Service. She later worked with her first husband, Aubrey L. Turner, in his law office and Turner Feed and Poultry, a pioneer business in poultry and egg production. She was an entrepreneur who marketed her original hand made soaps and skin balms for many years, both locally and nationally. She will long be remembered for her soap-making demonstrations at the Cleveland County Pioneer Arts and Crafts Festival. She also was a preparer of income tax returns for over 50 years and was enthusiastically involved in genealogical research her entire life. She was a fifty-year member of the Rison United Methodist Church, the John McAlmont Chapter National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 83 and the Rison Extension Homemakers Club. She was also a member of the Ouachita Valley Chapter National Society Colonial Dames of the Seventeenth Century, Thomas Bradford Chapter National Society United Daughters of 1812, Ouachita-Calhoun County Genealogical Society, Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas, Arkansas Genealogical Society, Harry Family Association, University of Arkansas and Arkansas Tech Alumni Associations, Arkansas Craft Guild, and a charter member of the Cleveland County Historical and Genealogical Society. She was preceded in death by her first husband, Aubrey L. Turner, on November 04, 1959 and by her second husband, Alexander Banks Dawson, on May 05, 2004.

She is survived by three sons, Jeffrey P. Turner and wife, Jo Anne, of Rison, Alexander B. Dawson and wife, Melanie, of Little Rock, and Bruce C. Dawson and wife, Leah, also of Little Rock; a stepson Jimmy Turner and wife, Patsy, of Rison; a step-daughter, Janet Smalley, and husband, Mike, of California; four grandchildren, Nicholas Dawson and MacKean Dawson, both of Little Rock, Anjinine Turner and Kyle Moore, both of Rison; one brother, James J. Patterson, of Harrison; four sisters, Alice Stroman, Grace McGehee, and Elizabeth Milligan of Alpena, Eleanor Hodges of Omaha Route, Boone County, and numerous nieces and nephews.

Services will be held Wednesday, December 30, 2009 in Rison at the Rison United Methodist Church at 2:00 p.m., and Thursday, December 31, 2009 in Alpena at the Alpena Methodist Church at 2:00 p.m. Burial will be in Green Hill Cemetery at Roscoe, Boone County, Arkansas.

Visitation will be Tuesday, December 29, 2009 from 6:00-8:00 at Buie Funeral Home in Rison. Memorials can be made to any charity. Arrangements are by Buie Funeral Home of Rison (870) 325-6216.