Karen Lawrence's family isn't the only one that has kept her memory going for nearly four decades.
The New Year's Eve road race named for her has been loaded through the years with people from Signal Mountain or Red Bank who grew up with Karen or her siblings or who came along later and got pulled into those communities' strong ties to the event.
Karen was 11 years old when she died of acute lymphocytic leukemia early in 1980, three months after being an official starter of the inaugural race she envisioned as a fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis. After 35 years benefiting St. Jude, the Karen Lawrence Run has helped the Ronald McDonald House of Chattanooga since 2014.
Gordon Brewer was a schoolmate of Karen and her twin Kim, the latter through graduation at Red Bank High, and his brother Marshall was a classmate of Mike Lawrence, the twins' older brother who serves as race director. Although Brewer attended Rhodes College in Memphis, lived briefly in Arkansas and has lived in Nashville since 1993, he's missed only "four or five" of the New Year's Eve runs - once to attend a friend's wedding outside the country.
"Karen was the first person I really knew who passed away. Her illness and death had a huge impact on my whole family," he said this week.
Brewer's children, Ford and Kate Maree, have taken the family's participation to another generation, "but the real standout was my mom," Gordon said this week.
His mother, Keiko Brewer, participated 36 times in the event's first 37 years. She couldn't make it last year, because of the increasing issues of her Alzheimer's disease, and she died two months ago, so this year's 2-mile walk in conjunction with the competitive 4-mile race is dedicated to her "loving memory."
"They've been a staple at the race. It was Keiko and her kids and then Keiko and her grandkids," Mike Lawrence said Wednesday. "They've been very involved and they've stayed involved all these years, and they're wonderful faces to see in the crowd."
Runners begin the annual Karen Lawrence Run on Dec. 31, 2012, between banners lining one of the northbound lanes on Broad Street near Third Street.Keiko always did the fun run/walk.
"She was a diligent walker always," said Gordon, who mostly does the fun run, too. He's entered in it this year with his daughter.
"I have run the main race at times - though it has been a few years," he said. "Wife Holly and son Ford are the full-race candidates of late."
Ford was the first junior finisher in the 2-mile in 2013, when his sister was the second female finisher, and he was the overall fun run winner the next year.
Their father, a vice president for the UBS investment firm in Nashville, just turned 50 and said he intends to keep participating in the Karen Lawrence Run "for the foreseeable future." But this year, Gordon Brewer admitted, "I'll mostly be there for the fellowship."
As he reflected on the event's past fellowship, he kept thinking of more and more family groups who have participated in big chunks of years. Many of them were athletes known for other sports.
"Mike Kelley, who went on from Red Bank to play linebacker for Tennessee, ran the race for several years, and his two brothers have run it pretty much every year from the early days," Brewer said, adding such as Ted Gatewood, Scott Gearinger, Fran Halloran, Julian Kaufman, Tommy Pugh, Dan and Benji Cordell, coach Tom Weathers and at least one of his sons, star quarterback Marty Lowe and more recently Signal Mountain's Harrison Moon as other football standouts who became "race alums." Moon's dad, Mike, was a classmate of Mike Lawrence.
There also were Kendra Bell and Jennifer "Curly" Johnson Williams, who went from Red Bank to play point guard at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Kentucky, respectively, and track and field stars Beverly Nixon Blackwell, who became Signal Mountain's track coach, and Terry Topping, also a football standout at Red Bank. And Scott Cook, longtime Red Bank basketball and running coach, and his son David.
Others included Greg Lockhart, a Signal Mountain resident who became a basketball all-stater at Sequatchie County, and his sister Dede, a junior high teammate of Kim Lawrence; McCallie wrestling stars Jimmy Lynch and Johnny Noback; and Baylor point guard Andy Tucker, one of Kim's elementary classmates.
"There's a heavy Signal Mountain/Red Bank flavor to this list - understandably, since that's where the Lawrences are from - but I know there are others," Brewer said, citing as examples "the Richey brothers from McCallie back in the day and Rick Rogers from East Ridge and now coaching Central."
Signal residents, Red Bank alumni and University of Tennessee runners Steve Fassino and Phoebe Wright were the main-race winners in 2009, when another ex-Lion, Michael Walker, was the overall runner-up and Red Bank coach Hugh Enicks was the master winner. Wright proceeded to win NCAA indoor and outdoor 800-meter titles in 2010.
Entry for the 7 p.m. event on Dec. 31 costs $35, and anyone who registers before Christmas will be entered in a drawing for a Southwest Airlines ticket anywhere in the United States. See karenlawrencerun.itsyourrace.com to register or for more information.
There also is a $25 "ghost runner" option this year for those who want to take part without being present.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.