Laura Louise Munson

     Laura Louise Munson was born on 13 December 1913 near West Columbia, Brazoria County, Texas.¹ She was the daughter of George Poindexter Munson Sr. and Louise Underwood. She married Joe McDonald Ingraham on 29 October 1954 in Houston, Harris County, Texas.^2,3 She died on 28 September 2005 in Houston at age 91. Her obituary was published in the Houston Chronicle on 2 October 2005.⁴
     
     Laura Louise Munson was named for her mother's sister, Laura Underwood, and for her mother. She was known to family and many friends as "Chichi," a nickname given her by brother Joe who, when learning to talk, called her "e-chichi" (little sister). She was born at the Taylor place between East and West Columbia, but closer to the latter, home of her mother's aunt and uncle, Jim and Virginia Hanks Taylor, during the great 1913 overflow of the Brazos River. Even though the Taylor home was built on stilts, Dr. Marcus Weems, who arrived by boat to attend the birth, had to crawl in through a window. Chichi grew up in Brazoria County, and appears there in the household of her parents as a six year old in the 1920 census , and a sixteen year old in the 1930 census.^5,6 The family home was at Bailey's Prairie, but the Munsons lived in East Columbia during the school year.

     After graduation from West Columbia High School Chichi lived with Ligon and Catherine Munson Foster (her older sister) in Oklahoma and attended the University of Oklahoma. Moving closer to home, she attended the University of Houston. She got a teaching job in a one-room, one-teacher country school near West Columbia. Discipline was a problem, especially with the older boys, and prior education of her students was poor. The experience so traumatized Chichi that she quit teaching permanently and went to business school in Houston.

     After business school, Chichi had several jobs before landing the position of legal secretary in the Houston firm of Matthews and Ferguson, and for Joe Ingraham, an independent lawyer who rented space from the firm. After she and Joe married they made their home in Houston, but enjoyed spending time at their beach house at Surfside near Freeport. Joe died in 1990. They had no children.