Audrey Ellen Nixon Drawbaugh, Stanford University graduate, wife, mother, and sharp wit died on Friday, May 12 at a hospital in Greenville, SC. She was 97. The cause was overall systems failure due to multiple chronic illnesses. Audrey died peacefully with her son and daughter by her side for the two days she was in the hospital.
Audrey was born February 13, 1926 in Iron River, Michigan. Her father, Earl Kaiser Nixon, was a geologist and her mother, Daisy Leona Ramsey, was a schoolteacher. They met when they were both studying at the University of Kansas. The family followed Earl’s mining engineering jobs to Venezuela, northern California, then to Oregon. In Venezuela, Audrey and her parents lived in an open thatched home where she was the only child within miles. Her mother home-schooled her, and her father, to ensure her survival, instilled in her a dread of snakes. Later, living in Oregon, Audrey had fond memories of her years at the Esterly placer gold mine, walking in the woods accompanied only by her dog whose primary purpose was to ward off bears. Her brother, Alan, was born there, ten years younger than Audrey.
She studied at Reed College in Oregon, then because her father kept her on a very short leash, transferred and completed her bachelor’s degree at Stanford in 1948 when her parents moved to California. Unable to shake the leash, she moved with her parents to Kansas where she worked in the Geology Department at Kansas University
where her father taught. She met and married Donald Wayne Drawbaugh, who was a PHD candidate in the nuclear physics program at KU in 1949. She said Don was the most interesting man she had ever
met.
After more job moves and the birth of her two children, Laura and Max, the family settled in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. Don worked at Westinghouse doing research for peacetime nuclear reactor applications. Audrey was a homemaker and a loving mother. She was the mom that squeezed half the neighborhood kids into our little car
and took us everywhere. She followed her passion for studying French and took classes for many years.
When her husband, Don, died in 2003, Audrey moved to Greenville, SC where she bought the house beside her son’s house. She was the definition of fortitude as she started a new chapter of her life in Greenville in her late 70’s. She developed friendships at Senior Action exercise classes, tutored students at Greenville Literacy, and attended Continuing Ed classes at Furman, and learned to navigate the crazy roads in Greenville. She continued her French studies and her passionate following of national and world events. During her last years of dutifully taking pills and treatments for various health conditions her son, Max, looked after her unwaveringly.
She is survived by Max Donald Drawbaugh (Rosanne), Laura Jean Drawbaugh, and her brother, Alan Keith Nixon. Those that knew Audrey were taken in by her warmth, curiosity, and kind and gentle soul.
A Celebration of Audrey's Life will be held 1:00 - 3:00 PM Saturday, July 15, 2023 at Palmetto Mortuary, 1017 Mauldin Rd., Greenville, SC 29607.