Last namesake of Lawson’s Grocery dies

Donald Eugene Lawson, a former owner of Lawson’s Grocery Store on Castro Street and a mainstay of Mountain View life throughout the middle of the last century, has died — and taken many stories about early Mountain View with him.

Lawson died of pancreatic cancer on Sept. 1. He was 88.

A few months earlier, Lawson visited the Voice and talked about how people once socialized around the pickle barrel at Lawson’s Grocery, which was run by his family since 1922. The store was an informal gathering place for the community, including local business owners who would watch boxing matches there on Friday nights after hours.

Beth Lawson-Hyland, one of his four daughters and a children’s librarian at the Mountain View library, said her father knew scandalous information about some of the wealthiest people in the Los Altos Hills area, where he delivered groceries.

“He would say, ‘I know all the dirt and I will never tell anyone anything about it,'” she said.

Lawson’s family came to Mountain View from Waukegan, Ill. when Don was 2 years old. He took over the family grocery store, located on the west side of Castro’s 200 block, from his parents after returning home from service in the Navy in World War II. He ran it until the building was condemned in 1959, then went to work for the city’s post office until 1980.

Beth said her father developed a reputation for integrity and honesty. Lawson once refused a check for thousands of dollars after he helped a government contractor get a winning contract bid to Washington, D.C. at the last minute.

His daughter said he always seemed to have good karma because of the little favors he did for people. He once fed an expired parking meter for a car parked in front of his store. The act so impressed the car’s owner that he gave one of Lawson’s daughters a nice deal on a wedding ring years later, Beth said.

The Lawson family has a history of involvement in Mountain View’s civic life. Lawson’s wife Ruth was director of Mountain View’s library from 1972 to 1981. In fact, the library is built on the address of a demolished home that was one of many built by Lawson’s grandfather, Charles Lawson. Charles Lawson’s son Clarence Lawson was the city’s first paid fire chief.

One of Don Lawson’s proudest achievements was getting Landels Elementary School named after his favorite teacher, Edith Landels, who taught Lawson and his four daughters during her more than 45-year tenure. When the orchard property on Dana Street was first purchased to be made into a school, Lawson circulated a petition with 500 signatures in support of naming it after “Miss Landels.”

Lawson is predeceased by his wife of almost 69 years, Ruth Lawson, and by his daughter Judy, who died in April. He is survived by his daughters Janet, Carol and Beth; 10 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

A memorial service for Lawson will be held Saturday, Oct. 17 — the 89th anniversary of his birth — at 2 p.m. at Mountain View First Presbyterian Church, 1667 Miramonte Ave. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the American Cancer Society.

Digitized photos of the Lawson Grocery Store going back to the 1920s are available through the Mountain View Public Library Web site. To see them, go to the library Web site, click on the catalog and then enter the search words “Lawson” and “Grocery.”