Anna Lee (Cauble) LaBar passed away June 6 in San Marcos, Texas after a
long battle with cancer. A memorial service is planned during the Cauble family reunion in July 2003 in Lake Tahoe. Anna Lee was born in Walnut Grove, Missouri, the sixth child of William Arthur and Edna May Cauble. Known as the "strongest kid in school", Anna Lee displayed early on a knack for setting lofty goals and achieving them. When she was just a teenager, the Cauble family spent a year in Idaho. Determined to win a local contest for selling newspaper subscriptions, Anna Lee borrowed a neighbor's Model A Ford (she didn't know how to drive, but quickly learned) and spent weeks touring the Idaho farmlands. After she won the award, Anna Lee bought "something for every one of the kids still at home". During World War II the Cauble family moved to San Francisco where Anna Lee and five others of the Cauble Clan worked in the shipyards. Although Anna Lee admitted she "couldn't distinguish a wrench from a screwdriver", she quickly found her calling when a contest for selling war bonds was announced, and Anna Lee spent hours and days "spinning yarns" and talking folks into buying the bonds. When she won the contest, Anna Lee was asked to christen the last Liberty Ship built in the shipyard- the Silvestre Escalante.
From the shipyards to the catwalk, Anna Lee turned her career to modeling and worked as a full time model for the Maison Mendesolle Fashion Boutique in the St. Francis Hotel. She also modeled for Macy's and Neiman Marcus in San Francisco and New York. During her modeling career, Anna Lee traveled, and discovered a love for flying. She became an American Airlines Flight Attendant and her professional ability quickly resulted in her promotion to Chief Flight Attendant and to a position in Public Relations. It was at this time Anna Lee met Bob LaBar, a lead agent for the airlines. They were married on April 3, 1951. Anna Lee continued to model with Neiman Marcus and to work for American Airlines. Daughter LeeAnn was born in 1958 in Dallas, Texas, where the family had moved when Bob went into sales and inventory control systems on the "new world" of computers, establishing his own business in Dallas. The LaBar family moved to Phoenix in the late 1960s where Anna Lee modeled for Goldwaters. Anna Lee and Bob moved to Oregon in the late 1970s and Anna Lee embraced yet another highly successful career-this time in real estate sales. Working with sister Sandra, Anna Lee was a top realtor for Tom Malot Real Estate LLC. Anna Lee became a Life Member of the Million Dollar Club and an active member in the Women's Council of Realtors. Throughout all of her successful careers, and in every community in which she lived, Anna Lee was well known. An avid hiker and animal lover, Anna Lee was passionate about nature, devoted to her family, and was an accomplished seamstress, businessperson, and volunteer leader. Her charisma, professionalism, and zest for living will be missed by many, and remembered with great fondness. Anna Lee is preceded in death by her parents William Arthur Cauble and Edna May (Fox) Cauble; and two sisters, Gladys Laura (Raef) Cauble and Joyce Gayle Cauble. Anna Lee is survived by husband Robert LaBar and daughter LeeAnn LaBar, both of San Marcos, TX. Anna Lee is also survived by siblings Lois A. Johnson and Hazel M. Garrett of Bakersfield, CA; Mary R. Buff of Florida; Edith C. Tillman of Las Vegas, NV; Berniece Row of Grants Pass, OR; Arthur Nelson Cauble of Sutherlin, OR; Robert E. Lee Harrison Cauble of Kennewick, WA; Donald G. Cauble of Roseburg, OR; and Sandra L. Malot of Central Point, OR. The LaBar family wishes to thank Stonehaven Resort of San Marcos, TX and the Central Texas Hospice for their support and care.