Elizabeth Ann "Libby" Laughlin, 64, of Grapevine, Texas, went home to be with Our Lord and Savior on February 24, 2024, after a courageous battle with breast cancer. A Celebration of Life Service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, March 9, 2024, in the Family Room at First Baptist Church of Midlothian, 1651 S Midlothian Parkway, Midlothian, Texas.

Libby was born February 11, 1960, in Norwalk, Connecticut, to Alfred G. "Al" and Elizabeth Jean "Betty" McCausland, both of whom preceded her in death. After Al's retirement from Mobil Oil in New York in 1967, Libby and her family moved to a pre-Revolutionary War home in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. With her father retired, Libby and her family often traveled across the U.S. and Canada by car. Libby would tell stories of the family trips to Flat Head Lake Lodge, a working dude ranch in Montana. Growing up, Libby was quite the athlete, competing on the school swim team and playing basketball in high school. Libby also had her hand in raising animals, in particular, her sheep, Chocolate and Vanilla, a ram named Rosh, and her horse, Tango.

Libby's parents were also very active in hosting foreign exchange students during Libby's junior high years. Two whom they hosted, Sergio Paoliello from Brazil and Nasrin Rahimieh from Iran, whom Libby called her "Brazilian brother" and "Iranian sister," remain part of the family to this day. Between Libby's junior and senior years of high school, Libby was, herself, a short-term exchange student to Japan. When talking about her Japan experience, Libby would speak of how when she landed in Japan and met her Japanese family, she spoke virtually no Japanese and her Japanese family spoke even less English. Libby would usually go on to say how it was during her time in Japan when she prayed often and became ever more reliant on God to provide for her needs and guide her decisions.

Libby attended high school at The Williams School in New London, Connecticut, graduating in 1978. Libby would be the first to tell you that, while she made a number of friends during high school, a couple with whom she continued to remain in contact over the years, high school was a very rough time in her life. She would sometimes joke that her fondest memory of high school was watching the cadets from the Coast Guard Academy (which was right across the street from the school) running across the Connecticut College campus, where The Williams School is located.

During his career at Mobil Oil, Libby's father would frequently travel to Dallas to conduct business at the Magnolia Building (yes, THE Magnolia Building). When it came time for Libby to begin looking for colleges, one school he suggested was Southern Methodist University in Dallas…SMU. Libby applied to SMU, was accepted, and arrived on campus with her parents on August 20, 1978, where an 18-year-old kid from Edmond, Oklahoma, helped Libby and her parents unload her car and move her stuff to her dorm room.

Initially desiring to follow her father into the corporate world, Libby enrolled in college with an eye toward obtaining an accounting degree. However, Libby soon realizes that her passion was not business but instead teaching children, in particular, children with special needs. Libby switched her degree plan and began working toward obtaining a bachelor's degree in

Communications Disorders with a specialty toward deaf education, which she was awarded upon graduation from SMU in May 1982.

In the Spring of 1979, Libby pledged with the Alpha Upsilon Chapter of Delta Gamma, becoming an initiated sister later that spring. At the urging of the kid from Edmond and others in his Sigma Chi pledge class, Libby later was initiated as a Little Sigma with the Delta Mu Chapter of Sigma Chi. During her senior year of college, Libby served as a resident assistant on a freshman girl's floor while planning a wedding (in which she planned on getting married to that kid from Edmond), and, in her last semester, carried over 20 course hours and performed her student teaching hours teaching deaf children in an elementary class at a school in Dallas.

On June 12, 1982, four weeks after their graduation from SMU, Libby married the kid from Edmond.

Because of the lack of deaf education positions in the Dallas area at the time, Libby did not immediately start her teaching career, but her passion for teaching children never waned. Eventually, Libby took a position teaching children with dyslexia and attention deficit disorder at the Highland Park Presbyterian Mediative School, and later taught at the Dean Learning Center, during which time she became a certified alphabetic-phonics therapist. After Kevin and Libby moved to their first house in Allen, Texas, Libby went to work as a traveling reading specialist in several elementary schools in the Allen Independent School District, continuing in that position until the family moved to Midland in October 1989.

With Libby having grown up in the Episcopal church, and Kevin attending the Presbyterian church in high school, once married, they began looking for a single church home. While attending a company softball game, friends and co-workers of Libby's invited Kevin and Libby to visit their Sunday School class at Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas. Though joining a Southern Baptist church was not exactly a compromise between the Episcopal and Presbyterian denominations, it was quickly clear to Kevin and Libby they had found a church home where the Bible was preached and Christ was present. Libby and Kevin were baptized together on Sunday, January 8, 1984.

Libby's passion for teaching children in a Sunday School setting was realized as she began volunteering as a preschool teacher at Park Cities after Richard was born. Following the family's move to Midland, Texas, in 1989, Libby continued to expand her role in preschool Sunday School at First Baptist Church of Midland, teaching a preschool Sunday School class and in the Mother's Day Out program. In April 1996, following another of Kevin's career moves and relocation to Kerrville, Texas, Libby immediately began volunteering in a preschool Sunday School class at Trinity Baptist Church where the family attended. Shortly thereafter, relying on her experience garnered at First Baptist - Midland, Libby received approval to start the first Children's Day Out program at Trinity. Soon after, Libby was asked to serve as the three-quarter time Director of Children and Preschool at Trinity following the resignation of the prior director. As Libby's role in ministering to children and their parents at Trinity continued to grow, her call to full-time ministry grew louder and louder. Two key events in Libby's life solidified that call. The first was her attendance on a Walk to Emmaus shortly following the death of her father, who had been living with the Laughlin family prior to his death. The second was hearing the words of Don Guthrie, the

retired pastor of First Baptist Church of San Antonio, at Sunday School Week at Glorietta, New Mexico. The effect of both events convinced Libby more than ever the Holy Spirit was calling her into full time ministry to preschoolers. Following several discussions with her pastor at Trinity, and with the growth of the preschool/children's ministry requiring more than just 30 hours a week, the church elevated Libby to a full-time Minister to Children and Preschool. To further her education, Libby also enrolled in classes at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary campus in San Antonio in pursuit of a masters in Christian Education.

In April 2002, Libby was called to return to First Baptist Church of Midland to serve as the Preschool Minister alongside many of the same people with whom she volunteered during the family's first time in Midland. Libby transferred to Dallas Baptist University and, through on-line classes, completed her course work for her master's degree and graduated with her Master of Arts in Christian Education in August 2008. In April 2008, Kevin accepted a position with a law firm in Dallas, leaving Libby virtually as a single mom for the next three years as the girls finished high school and Kevin flew home every other weekend. Following Lauren's graduation from high school in May 2011, Libby and Kevin reunited under the same roof in Garland, Texas, and accepted the position as the Director of the Day School at First Baptist Church – Plano, a non-ministry position.

Libby remained out of full-time ministry for only a year. A longtime friend and mentor in preschool ministry made Libby aware that First Baptist Church of Midlothian was searching for a new preschool minister and asked permission to submit Libby's resume for consideration. Libby consented and, to make an already long story a little shorter, Libby was called to become the Preschool Pastor of FBC Midlothian in August 2012, following which Kevin and Libby moved to Midlothian. During Libby's almost 10 years serving at FBC Midlothian, saw a tremendous growth in the preschool ministry as the population with the area continued to attract young families, bringing with it the typical challenges of recruiting more volunteers, finding more classroom space, finding the best ways to communicate more efficiently to parents whose means of communication have evolved, and providing enhanced safety for more children. Libby also faced the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the need to do church differently when church could not be held on campus, and the challenges of reducing the spread of COVID within the preschool area after on-campus services resumed. Using her years of experience, her hyper-organizational skills, and much prayer, Libby was largely able to assure parents that all reasonable measures were in place in the preschool area so preschoolers were safe attending Sunday School, NABS, or other events.

In May 2022, Libby left FBC Midlothian to become the Executive Director of the Goddard School in Flower Mound. To reduce Libby's 60-mile drive to work, Libby and Kevin moved to Grapevine, Texas in August 2022. The week after Libby and Kevin moved to Grapevine, Libby was diagnosed with a rare but very aggressive breast cancer, forcing her to resign her position at Goddard shortly thereafter as she went through treatments. But Libby's ministry was not finished.

In October 2023, following more than a year of her battle with cancer and with the blessing of her doctors, Libby joined the staff at Northwest Bible Church in Dallas as the Preschool Minister. According to the staff at Northwest, notwithstanding the short time she served with the

Family Ministry team, Libby was able to make a positive impact on the preschool ministry and the staff. Unfortunately, the impact she desired to have at Northwest Bible was not fully realized, as the cancer against which she battled returned.

Notwithstanding Libby's joy in serving our Lord in Preschool Ministry, her greatest joy was her children and grandchildren. Whether it was chaperoning band trips, sewing dance costumes, helping sell tickets for school fundraisers, fixing and serving food at all types of school events, and serving as a taxi driver for our children and their friends, even when working full time, Libby was involved in the lives of her three children. Libby loved to sew and smock the children's clothes when they were young. When she learned the first of the grandchildren was to be born, she began in earnest sewing and embroidering new clothes, blankets, burp rags, towel sets, and anything else you can imagine could be embroidered or appliqued. During most of her 18 months in battling cancer, "Mimi" spent much of her time at home in her craft room sewing, making holiday boxes for the grandchildren, and sewing quilts for all of the children and grandchildren.

As her children grew to adulthood, Libby transformed seamlessly from mother to confidante, counselor, minister, and best friend. As a wife, mother, and grandmother, Libby was always one to give more than she received, doing so unconditionally. At times, particularly in her final earthly days, Libby's most frequently spoken phrase was "I'm sorry," apologizing because she viewed someone serving and helping her as an inconvenience to the other person. During the nearly 40 years as a special education teacher, preschool volunteer, Mother's Day Out teacher and director, preschool ministry director, and preschool minister, Libby directly or indirectly touched the lives of hundreds if not thousands of children, parents, and grandparents through sharing her love of Christ and working with loving church volunteers, fellow ministry staff, and childcare workers to do the same. Serving in ministry as long as she did, Libby had the ultimate joy of seeing children to whom she ministered become parents themselves, raising their children to learn about and accept the love of Christ.

Libby is survived by her husband of over 41 years, Kevin B. Laughlin, their children, Richard Laughlin and wife, Christiana, of Dauphin, Pennsylvania; Ashley Ermis and husband, Kyle, of Boerne, Texas, and Lauren Guidry and her husband, Jeremy, of Grand Prairie, Texas, her three grandchildren, Kaden Ermis (6), Callyn Ermis (15 months), and Mavric (6); her brother, Scott McCausland and his wife, Cheryl, of Ridgefield, Washington, her niece, Megan McCausland, and nephew, Jacob McCausland, and a long list of in-laws that would take another three pages to name. Libby is also survived by many closed children, parents, grandparents, and others whose lives she has touched during her time in and out of ministry.

In lieu of flowers, Libby requested that monetary gifts be made to one of the churches where she served for the benefit of their Preschool Ministries: Trinity Baptist Church in Kerrville, Texas; First Baptist Church of Midland, Texas, First Baptist Church of Midlothian, Texas, or Northwest Bible Church of Dallas, Texas.