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

Sara Laas has lived all over Texas and even Venezuela. But there’s something special about Austin, the 94-year-old who lives there from time to time will tell you. There must be something special, because she keeps coming back to Austin.

Sara, who moved to Austin four times in her life, grew up in the then-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 was housed with a family. Seeking a more typical college experience, she transferred to UT-Austin after two years.

When she transferred, “it was a little late to be in a dorm,” Sara said. “There were no apartments back then, there were boarding houses — it was all girls or all boys. So I lived in boarding houses — the one on San Antonio Street and the next year, my senior year, the one on Rio Grande.”

As a student at UT, Sara said the highlight of her day was hearing the tower bells ring at noon. She majored in English, which she considered a bit rebellious because women were expected to go into nursing or teaching. After graduation, she changed locations and fields, taking jobs in teaching, human resources and television.

“In those days, you followed your husband everywhere and took whatever job you could find wherever he was,” Sara said.

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

Sara moved to Austin for the second time in 1972. She was recently divorced and wanted a credit card.

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

“You have to be ready for the next step, and that’s the best thing about Austin: the next step always comes first.”
– Sara Laas

But getting a credit card was a challenge, as most banks refused to issue them to women. The law also stipulated that legally married women could not have their own credit cards—and another law stipulated that Sara had to reside in a county for six months before she could file for divorce.

So Sara waited six months, then went to a bank. She remembers bringing a briefcase to look more “professional.” Banks could refuse to issue credit cards to women until the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 was passed. However, in 1972, Texas passed its Equal Rights Amendment.

“I was able to tell 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 up and gave me a credit card.”

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

When Sara first lived in Austin, the city was about two things: the university and the Capitol. By 1993, the city was changing. Live music, film, and technology industries were growing, and so were attitudes toward them. Museums seemed to be popping up. And Lady Bird Lake had undergone a transformation, the result of a beautification effort led by Lady Bird Johnson.

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

Sara left Austin in 2012 for a few years but returned for the last time in 2015. She bought a house in the Mueller neighborhood, where she has lived ever since.

“It’s frustrating to want to be a human being and be put in a box,” Sara said. “But that’s why I keep coming back to Austin, because it’s not as limited as a lot of other places. That’s why I’ve been to Austin four times; it’s the only place where I feel free to be myself.”