SAN ANTONIO, TX Constance (Coni) Lawless passed away into the loving arms of our Savior on Friday, April 10, 2015, after a terrific struggle against the scourge of cancer. She was born on October 1, 1945, in York, to Faye Elizabeth Pickel and William Fordyce Thompson. Coni spent her early years on the family farm in Brogue and that gave her a dislike of chickens she never overcame. She attended a one-room schoolhouse until her mother moved her and her sister to Akron, Ohio. Coni was a beautiful young lady who won many beauty contests to include being selected as Miss Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and ranked high in the Miss Ohio contest. While attending the University of Akron, where she was a member of Phi Mu Sorority, she met the love of her life, Bernie Lawless. They were married in 1968 at Fort Polk, La., and thus began a military career that spanned over 30 years. She experienced and enjoyed the trials of being an Army wife (or "Dep W" as the Army refers to service wives) with a smile on her face. Always faced with the task of moving household and kids on very short notice, she became an expert in knowing how to make the best of any situation. They traveled all over the world and lived in such diverse places as Berlin, Germany; Mexico City, Mexico; and Misawa, Japan. She often said if someone could live half the life she had they would have lived a full life. Coni was a terrific fighter who overcame a liver transplant and fought an incurable cancer. She always kept a positive outlook, and with the help of the Oncology Department at Brooke Army Medical Center, especially Dr. Jason Barnett, Eve, and Lisa, was able to enjoy a quality of life in her final years. It enabled her to continue to raise and thoroughly enjoy her grandchildren whom she had raised since birth. Coni was preceded in death by her beloved mother, Faye, and her father Ford; and is survived by her husband of 46 years, Col. (ret) Bernard J. Lawless; their children, Theresa Faye Lawless and Thomas Joseph Lawless; her sister, Ruth Lehman of Red Lion; her brother, William Thompson of Cullowhee, N.C.; her grandchildren, Trai Anthony Tolleson and Jade Sierra Helena Lawless of Canyon Lake, Texas; and nephews, Hoyt Wine and Ashley Wine of Red Lion. There was a service at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery on April 23, 2015, and an additional service will be held at 11 a.m. on June 15, 2015, at the New Harmony Church in Brogue.