Obituary of Laura E. Eaves

Laura Eaves of North Branch, MN died Monday, May 18, 2015 at Provident Home Healthcare, Falcon Heights, MN at age 57. Laura was born September 27, 1957 in Omaha, NE to Donald and Lois Eaves. She attended grammar school in Bellevue, NE; Cambridge, MN and Phoenix, AZ. She graduated from Arcadia high-school in Phoenix with high honors and received a scholarship to Brigham Young University, where she graduated magna cum laude in mathematics in 1981 in spite of having missed a semester because a serious injury. In 1984, she finished a masters degree in computer-science at University of Arizona, Tucson. That same year she accepted employment at AT&T-Bell Labs at Murray Hill, NJ, where she was employed for 12 years, until her health deteriorated to where she could no longer work. She worked in research and development and was awarded for being one of the developers of the well-known C++ computer language, which was one of the projects she was assigned during her tenure there. Since the time of her disability, she has lived in Charlotte, NC and North Branch, MN, doing volunteer work to help instruct other blind programmers. Though blind, profoundly deaf without aids and unable to walk because of the numerous bone breakages and spontaneous hematomas. Laura has enjoyed many varied interests. Her knowledge extended far beyond her academic training as she was an avid reader – from talking books for the blind. She also enjoyed many kinds of needlework – with intricate patterns that she couldn't see but designed by counting stitches. Laura was born with a very rare form of Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle-bone disease) which gradually took her vision from spontaneous ruptures of her eyes. She was legally blind at age 8. And that deteriorated as an adult to a slight recognition of light and darkness. However, with every set-back in health, she would acquire new horizons to compensate for what was lost. Laura would admonish her family not to say she was handicapped, but rather inconvenienced. We are so thankful that she has been a part of our family during her 57 years. She was one who spent her life beating the odds, since her prognosis was only to live just past infancy. She was preceded in death by her father, Donald Eaves. Surviving are her mother, Lois Eaves; brothers Donald Jr (Shelley) Eaves of Mint Hill, NC and Eric Eaves of Manassas, VA. Also, niece and nephews, Sandra (Daniel) Siepert, David (Ida) Eaves and Donald III (Courtney) Eaves; grand nephew, Benjamin Siepert; grand nieces, Miriam Siepert and Tapanga Eaves