Sonia Maria Stuart (née Janse van Rensburg) was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, July 30, 1941 to parents Willem Cornelius Janse van Rensburg and Johanna Catherina Maria Janse van Rensburg (née Wandrag).

She passed from this world to God's loving embrace the night of March 8, 2023, aged 81 years. After a long illness, she died peacefully in her sleep at home surrounded by her loving family: Mark, her husband, and her children, Michael and Samantha.

Sonia is survived by her husband Mark; her son Michael Stuart and his wife, Shree; her daughter Samantha Kegge and her husband, Ronald; her grandchildren Selkie Stuart, Hugh Stuart, Theo Kegge, Johan Kegge, and Ada Kegge; and her brothers Willem van Rensburg and Johann van Rensburg.

Sonia had a rich and beautiful life, and she embraced her opportunities and challenges with passion and love.

Sonia attended the prestigious Afrikaanse Meisies Hoër Skool in Pretoria, where an internationally known soprano encouraged her to pursue a career singing opera. She considered this course briefly but decided that life was not conducive to having a family. She went on to attend "Tuks", the University of Pretoria, where she was recruited by the South African National Intelligence Service. For mysterious reasons she never discussed this with her children, except to say that this career path was also deemed not family-friendly.

She met her husband, Mark Stuart, while in university. After a whirlwind courtship (a total of three dates prior to becoming engaged), they married on May 6, 1964. Since Mark was an impoverished medical student, Sonia took a job selling Colgate products door to door. After two weeks on the job, she developed a marketing plan to improve sales. Within three years she was an account executive at the international advertising firm, J. Walter Thompson.

Sonia paused her career to become a full-time mother when Michael was born in 1969. When Mark travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland for a fellowship program in orthopedic surgery, Sonia and Michael joined him there in 1971. The three of them subsequently toured Europe and Canada for over a year. On returning to South Africa, they moved from Melville to Bryanston, a suburb of Johannesburg, where they built a beautiful house in 1973. Sonia and Mark welcomed their daughter, Samantha, in 1974. Shortly after, Sonia began law school at the University of the Witswatersrand, but her studies would be cut short by yet another life change.

In February of 1976, Mark attended a medical conference in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was so excited by America's spirit of freedom and innovation that he called Sonia on a Thursday afternoon. By that Saturday, she arrived in New Orleans. They visited Houston and loved its freewheeling spirit. Its resemblance, as an oil town, to Johannesburg's gold-and-diamonds history, appealed to them greatly. Texas' soul called to them, and they decided to make it home. Apparently, its call was strong, because just four months later on June 19, 1976, the Stuart family arrived in Houston with their big white cat, Binny. Sonia, who didn't yet know about Texas weather, stepped off the plane into Houston's sweltering summer in her fur coat.

For the first few months in the US, the family lived in Galveston, TX where Mark was on faculty at UTMB. The transition to the US was not always easy, but Sonia possessed tremendous stoicism and optimism and strove to make her children happy regardless of their circumstances. Soon they settled in Houston, which would be her home for the rest of her life.

Sonia was fluent in four languages and spoke English better than most native speakers, but at home she spoke mostly Afrikaans to her children. That soon changed, because she embraced becoming American (and Texan) fully, though she never lost her accent. She frequently told the children "We're Americans now"-- and taught them to love and appreciate the country that had accepted them generously with open arms.

Sonia was ever mindful of the need to assimilate, so in 1979 when her children were enrolled in a Christian school, Trinity Lutheran, Mark and Sonia (the atheists) started attending church there so the other kids would not mock the weird immigrants. Soon, Sonia and Mark felt their faith rekindled and renewed their commitments to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. This renewal began a long and deep spiritual journey especially for Sonia, who would take and teach Bible study intensely the rest of her life.

Sonia was never comfortable living in a house made of wood, so after several years they decided to build a new home. Sonia set about that task with her usual passion and dedication, designing, with an architect, a traditional South African "Cape Dutch" style house and acting as general contractor for the construction. The family moved to their new home in 1982; the grand all-concrete house still stands proudly. She felt vindicated in her distrust of wood homes when their original Houston house burned down after they had relocated.

Sonia did nothing by half measures. She was a devoted mother and could be a tiger when defending her children. She researched schools and thought Saint Thomas' Episcopal School was the best choice for her children, so she drove a 60-mile round trip twice a day for six years to get them there. While she played chauffeur, she had a busy Bible study for fifty attendees, ran the household, and managed family finances.

She was a great lover of animals, adopting dozens of cats and dogs throughout her life. She rescued wildlife and had a 100-pound tortoise named Cicero. Only snakes and spiders did not win her love. Her favorite travel was always to Kruger National Park to experience wild animals in nature.

When her children graduated from college, and she had much more leisure time, Sonia again took up her high school passion: singing opera. At 55 years old, she hired a voice coach, and soon joined the Kingwood Chorale and Opera Workshop, where she performed in multiple productions. She performed as a soloist and sang with multiple church choirs over the years.

Sonia adored her grandchildren and took a keen interest in their lives. She was a great lover of travel, exploring many corners of the world with Mark. She was a voracious reader and a dedicated supporter of the arts. She played piano at a virtuoso level. She was also an avid runner and later a cyclist. She loved car racing and typically drove like she was on the Autobahn. She had a quick and wicked sense of humor and delighted in puns and witticisms. She was the quintessential hostess, whether for a party of 200 or two. She was a deep thinker and a ruthless debater of politics.

Tragically, in her last years Sonia was stricken with bulbar ALS, which progressively destroyed her ability to speak, much less sing. Exhibiting her deep Christian faith and humility before God's will, she said "One of my failings is pride, and I had so much pride in the voice God gave me. God is reminding me that He gave it to me, it was not my doing!"

In lieu of flowers, please make donations in Sonia's honor either to the Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal or to The Brookwood Community.