Local British subject, former professor react to Queen Elizabeth II’s death

When Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne of the United Kingdom after the death of her father, King George VI, more than 70 years ago, Missouri's Harry Truman was still president of the United States.

Jeannette Lawson is associate director of development for Southeast Missouri State University's KRCU Radio and is a native of Scotland. Lawson, a British subject, said she was "heartbroken" to learn of the Thursday death of Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96.Submitted

Jeanette Lawson, associate director of development for KRCU Public Radio at Southeast Missouri State University, is a native of Scotland and has never known another British head of state.

Elizabeth II died Thursday at age 96 in the royal palace in Balmoral, Scotland.

"Oh, my goodness, I'm heartbroken because the queen was always there," said Lawson, still a British subject, who came to the U.S. in 1985. "Everybody loved the queen, and I never heard anybody in my country say anything negative about her personally."

Lawson recalled an anecdote from her time living in the U.K.

"They say everything (belongs) to the Queen — it's the Royal Mail, Royal Air Force, and so on. I used to work at the U.S. Navy Exchange on a RAF base, which is where I met my husband. One day, an American sailor was walking on the grass. A RAF sergeant yelled at him to 'get off the Queen's grass.' The American sailor turned around and said, 'Well, she's not using it today.'"

Retired Southeast Missouri State University professor Robert Hamblin, who spent about two years teaching and traveling in England, commented Thursday about the death of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.Southeast Missourian file

Robert W. Hamblin, who taught for half a century in SEMO's English Department and was director of the university's Center for Faulkner Studies, called himself an "Anglophile."

The longtime educator, whose teaching career also encompassed participation in the Missouri-London program, recalled how he and his late wife, Kaye, loved their time in England.

"I was teaching there in 1990 and again in 2001," said Hamblin, who remembered being in London outside Westminster Abbey on Commonwealth Day one year. "We saw the queen and (the late) Prince Philip going into the Abbey. They passed within about 10 feet of us, I recall."

Asked about the continuation of the British monarchy under King Charles III, Hamblin declined to comment.

"I admired and respected Queen Elizabeth, but I don't have much good to say about monarchies in general," he said.

Hamblin, who retired from the university in 2015, wrote a 2004 book about his experiences in England. Hamblin's book, "Mind the Gap: Poems by an American in London," was published by Southeast Missouri State University Press.