Stephanie Upson Obituary

Connie, I am so sorry for the loss of your mother.
Sincerely, Barbara Crank Moody

Our sympathy to you, Connie, and to your entire family. Stephanie was always a friendly and lovely woman, going back to our school years together, and more recently as a very good friend to my parents, also living at Meadowlark Hills.

Stephanie was the mother of one of my classmates at Lee School.
Later she and he family lived on Cedar Drive in my neighborhood.
She and my mother were good friends.
Patty McCrary

This photo is of Stephanie with her parents, Roy Earl and Clodell Jackson Clayton.

Stephanie was my cousin. We spent a crucial part of our youth adapting to a move into our grandparents farm home south of Hutchinson, KS. Neither of us were yet ten years old when we left homes, neighborhoods, and childhood friends we had known and loved. Our grandparent's home was a warm and loving place, but both of us had a hard time adjusting to life as the only kid in the house. We weren´t there for each other because I moved to the farm a decade after Stephanie. In recent years we have spent hours on the phone comparing memories and discussing similar experiences in spite of that intervening decade. Stephanie moved north to Kansas because our grandfather needed help running the farms to which he´d retired after a career in the oil business. We moved to share grandmother´s lonely home after our grandfather´s death. Both Stephanie and I became voracious readers to fill our empty hours after the move. We shared many recommendations for our book clubs in those recent phone calls.

Stephanie lived on the farm with both our grandparents. I hardly have any memories of our grandfather. I was especially keen to learn more about him. He had been a very successful businessman. He was accustomed to being the boss, making decisions for everyone else. He was also used to winning. That wasn´t much fun for a little girl. Stephanie told me our grandparents loved to play card games. He taught her card games, but made no concession to the fact she was just a little girl. He never let her win and took pleasure in consistently beating her. One day she noticed she could see the cards in our grandfather´s hand reflected in his glasses. Stephanie told me she seldom lost after that. She confessed to a mix of pride and shame at what she´d done. I think pride was the proper reaction. It was with great pleasure that I got to know the little girl with whom I shared the joys and agonies of our moves to the family farm. She was a very special person and I´ll miss her.