LaRae Estelle Dempsey Whitlow, 67, of Happy, passed away November 30, 2022.
LaRae’s celebration of life service will be Saturday, January 21st at 2:00 in the afternoon at Bobby Jack and Kathy Dempsey’s residence at 1825 Eubank in Matador, Texas. Everyone is welcome to attend. There will be time afterward to fellowship and share memories.
LaRae was born March 14, 1955 in Perryton, Texas to Henry Lloyd (Jack) and Bobby Sue Renner Dempsey. She graduated from Hereford High School in 1973.
LaRae earned her Physical Therapist Assistant license and settled in Happy, Texas where she was a traveling therapist. LaRae was passionate about her clients and had close relationships with several of them. After retirement she enjoyed babysitting her precious grandson, Layton.
Racy, as she was affectionately known by her siblings, loved scary movies and found great delight in scaring her nieces and nephews. She enjoyed old westerns and true crime/investigation ID shows. She loved good country music and she loved to dance. If you never saw her and Red dance you missed something really special. She was a protector of those less fortunate, fiercely independent, a workaholic, could cuss like a sailor but loved like a saint. She was tiny, yet mighty. Declining health robbed her of her mobility but not of her spirit. We can all hear her saying, “Oh Hell, yall don’t be sad”, or “I don’t give a rat’s ass about having a service.” She told it like it was and didn’t have a fake bone in her body. She was beautiful inside and out and was loved by all who knew her.
LaRae was preceded in death by her maternal grandparents, BW and Velma Renner, paternal grandparents, Newt and Maude Estelle Dempsey, her parents, Jack and Bobby Sue Dempsey, older brother, Joe Bill Dempsey and older sister, Velma Sue (Sudy) Dempsey Cochran.
Survivors include her son, Coy Will Laing and his father, Red Laing both of Hereford; her daughter, Callie Rae Piper of Canyon and her father, Richard Piper of Roaring Springs; grandchildren, Tell Laing and wife Amy of Friona, Sye Laing Teposte and husband Luis of Amarillo, Kree Laing of Amarillo, and Layton Kosechata of Canyon; four great grandchildren, Emma and Josey Laing and Beckham and Sterling Teposte; two brothers, Bobby Jack Dempsey and wife Kathy of Matador, and Harold Lloyd Dempsey and wife Cindy of Amarillo, a sister, Darla Beth Dempsey Forney and husband Ross of White Deer; sister-in-law Glinda Dempsey of Happy, as well as multiple nieces, nephews, aunts, and cousins.