Nancy Ann (Woodward) Myers

Nancy Ann (Woodward) Myers, 89, died August 29, 2022, in Lawrence, Kansas. She was born December 25, 1932, in Topeka, KS, the great granddaughter of BW Woodward, a survivor of Quantrill’s infamous raid on Lawrence.

As a girl, she grew up an Army brat and traveled with her mother and father. On December 7, 1941, she was nine years old playing on a Honolulu beach when Pearl Harbor was attacked, and she vividly recalled seeing the red circles on the attacking planes flying over. Nancy told stories of her mother teaching her to knit in the air-raid shelters on that Island, a craft she became highly skilled at, and later in life, created scores of sweaters and blankets for family and friends.

Nancy grew up with her two siblings in Belmont, CA, and told harrowing stories of learning to drive, careening around the hills above the Pacific in her father’s army jeep. After high school, she embarked on her Kansas adventure, to Lawrence, KS to attend art school at The University of Kansas, where she met her first husband Lawrence, (Larry) Schmit. They moved to Wichita, KS and had two children, Vickie and Tommy. They later separated.
Living in Wichita, KS, raising two children alone, and working in the art department at Boeing, she met and fell in love with Louis Leigh Myers, “her guy”. Nancy and Lou bought, and over the years made just right, their forever home on 15th Street. The house was complete with pool, ponds, and gardens where they loved to entertain family and friends with a steak on the grill, a dip in the pool, and a cold margarita. Nancy enjoyed the finer things in life and taught her kids how to properly slurp an oyster in spite of being land-locked in Kansas.

Nancy was quite an athlete: she was a founding member of the Wichita Ski Club where she and Lou met most of their life-long friends. Nancy was a competitive slalom racer, once making it to the amateur NASTAR nationals. She won her final gold medal racing downhill at the age of 83. She and her family enjoyed many Colorado ski vacations. Nancy enjoyed scuba diving and shared accounts like diving in the Great Blue Hole, of Jacques Cousteau fame, in Belize. Nancy was also an avid water skier and greatly enjoyed any day at the lake skiing, catching the sun on the family boat, or fishing with her guy, Lou.

Nancy was not afraid to try new things. Once her kids were safely off to school, she began volunteering in the Sedgwick County, KS crime lab developing crime scene photographs. She somehow parlayed that experience into driving convicts to regional prisons in a van with an officer riding ‘shotgun’. Eventually, she took classes in criminology and became Sedgwick County’s first woman detective, a profession she held for twelve years at a time when it surely wasn’t easy. Later in life she travelled extensively across the globe with her California travel group. She visited far flung places like India, Australia, Japan, Tonga, Africa and all over Europe. They say there was never a dull moment with Nancy around.
Nancy gave to her community by volunteering for Meals on Wheels and by donating to many charities. She loved animals and had many dogs, fish, a rat, an iguana, Guinea pigs, and parrots. Nancy was a devoted wife and mother. She was preceded in death by her husband Louis Leigh Myers; parents Thomas Darlington and Mary Evelyn Woodward (Hogue); her sister Marilyn Frehner (Paul); and her son Lawrence, Thomas (Tom) Myers. She is survived by her three children, Vickie Hays, Santa Ana, California; Leigh Myers (Elim), Lawrence, Kansas; and Michael Myers (Nancy), Lawrence, Kansas; her brother Chester Woodward (Barbara) Del Mar, California; eight grandchildren—Sean Myers, Jeremy Rezzonico, Alicia Hays, Jennifer Hays, Daniel Myers, Natalie Myers, Emily Myers, and Chloe Myers; great grandchild Emma Manning, and her close friend, (who she considered another kid) Kathleen Kennedy.
Her outgoing nature, generous spirit, bright blue eyes, and loving creativity with cooking and knitting will be greatly missed by her family and friends. A celebration of her life will be held in Lawrence, KS on October 15, 2022.

In lieu of flowers a memorial may be sent to:
Meals on Wheels – 200 S Walnut St, Wichita, KS 67213
Lawrence Humane Society – 1805 E 19th St, Lawrence, KS 66046
Visiting Nurses Association – 200 Maine St Suite C, Lawrence, KS 66044
or may be sent in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary, 120 W. 13th Street, Lawrence, KS 66044.