Austin Elders: Meet Sara Laas, the 94-year-old who couldn’t stay away Austin: This independent woman won’t be ‘put in a box’ – News

Sara Laas has lived all over Texas and even in Venezuela. But there’s something special about Austin, the 94-year-old Austinite who visits occasionally will tell you. There must be, because it keeps drawing her back.

Sara, who moved to Austin four times during her life, grew up in the small border town of Laredo before moving to Houston in 1947 to attend Rice University. At the time, female students weren’t allowed to live on campus, so Laas moved in with her family. Seeking a more typical college experience, she transferred to UT-Austin after two years.

When she transferred, “it was a little too late to live in a dorm,” Sara said. “They didn’t have apartments back then, they had boarding houses—either all girls or all guys. So I lived in boarding houses—the one on San Antonio Street, and the next year, my senior year, the one on Rio Grande.”

When she was a student at UT, Sara said the highlight of her day was hearing the Tower bells at 12:00. She studied English, which she considered a bit rebellious since women were expected to become nurses or teachers. After graduation, she bounced around jobs and fields, working as a teacher, in human resources and on television.

“Back in those days, you followed your husband around and took any job you could find wherever he was,” Sara said.

She credits her English degree for teaching her widely applicable analytical skills. She said UT didn’t have formal programs in many of the fields she ended up working in, such as human resources and film. “You have to be prepared for the next thing, which is the best thing about Austin—the next thing always comes first here,” Sara said.

Sara moved to Austin for the second time in 1972. She had just gone through a divorce and needed a credit card.

“When you think about it, it’s not safe to carry enough cash on you in case you get into a car accident or you have to take your child to the hospital or something like that,” she said. “It’s not safe to carry that much cash on you.”

“You have to be prepared for what’s next, and that’s the great thing about Austin – what’s next is always here first.”
– Sara Laas

But getting a credit card was a challenge, because most banks refused to issue them to women. The law also said that legally married women couldn’t have their own credit cards—and a separate law said Sarah had to live in the county for six months before she could file for divorce there.

So Sara waited six months, then went to the bank. She recalls taking a briefcase with her to look more “businesslike.” Banks could refuse to issue credit cards to women until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 went into effect; however, in 1972, Texas passed the Equal Rights Amendment.

“I could have said it was the law and I was stubborn enough to sit in the bank for three hours while they tried to ignore me,” Sara said. “Eventually (the banker) gave in and gave me a credit card.”

Sara moved away again in 1975 after remarrying. She returned to Travis County in 1993, living in the Bee Cave area but visiting the city frequently.

When Sara first lived in Austin, the city was two things: the university and the Capitol. In 1993, the city was changing. Live music, film, and technology industries were growing, as were attitudes toward them. Museums seemed to be popping up. And Lady Bird Lake was transformed, as a result of the beautification efforts spearheaded by Lady Bird Johnson.

The city has become more diverse. Sara welcomed the change. Her hometown of Laredo, she said, had refugees from all over the world, so she learned to get along with people from all over. Austin has also become more international, she said, with events like South by Southwest drawing people from all over the world.

Sara left Austin in 2012 for a few years, but returned for the final time in 2015. She bought a house in the Mueller neighborhood, where she lives today.

“It’s frustrating when you’re just trying to be human and people want to put you in a box,” Sara said. “But that’s why I keep coming back to Austin, because it’s not pigeonholed like a lot of other places. That’s why I’ve come to Austin four times; it’s the only place I feel comfortable being myself.”