Laura Zane Collings Little
June 30, 1940 — May 4, 2026

Laura Zane Collings Little, who introduced three generations of Orange County students to Hawthorne, Fitzgerald, and Steinbeck, while teaching them how to handwrite a proper thank-you note, died on May 4, 2026, at 85, with her son Robert Collings Little by her side.

Born in Minnesota in June 1940 to Dr. and Mrs. Robert Zane Collings, Jr., she was “Robbie” to those who knew her longest. Her father was a Princeton graduate studying medicine at the University of Chicago when he met her mother Laura, who was completing a graduate degree in social work there. During her early childhood in WWII, her father was a U.S. Navy officer and flight surgeon in the Pacific Theater. Shot down twice and rescued the second time while adrift in the Coral Sea, he rose to Commander in the years that followed. After the war, he never flew again.

Drawn west by his fluency in Spanish and boyhood dreams kindled by his distant cousin Zane Grey’s cowboy novels, Dr. Collings took his family across country by train — his wife Laura, eleven-year-old Robbie, and her two younger sisters Susan and Celeste — and settled them in Casa Grande, Arizona. He built a home and thriving medical practice in what was then a small cattle ranching and cotton farming town between Phoenix and Tucson. Robbie worked in her father’s medical office during high school while keeping a highly organized diary. When asked in 2012 what she wished she had done less of, she wrote, “Worrying about boys in high school!”

She graduated from Casa Grande Union High School in 1958 and went to the University of Arizona. She thought she might follow her father into medicine but fainted during dissections in anatomy class. She then gave herself to English, embracing her lifelong love of reading inspired by her mother which shaped the rest of her life. She was active in the Pi Beta Phi sorority, served as a copy editor of the yearbook, and was crowned the U of A’s Desert Queen before graduating in 1962. She then earned her master’s degree in English at the U of A. “Desert Queen” captured Laura’s rare combination — beauty, brains, moral fiber, a vivacious personality and love of laughter. For the next half-century, she single-handedly carried the tradition of annual Pi Phi reunions and was honored in fall 2020 with a room at the renovated chapter house dedicated in her name.

At the beginning of the 1970s, Laura met Will Little, a businessman, Korean War veteran, and Naval Academy graduate. They married in Malibu and made their home in Laguna Niguel, where they raised their son Robert. He left for college and law school on the East Coast and returned to California to begin practicing law.

For forty years, Laura taught English. Each morning she brought her ebullience, warmth, and kind spirit to school, along with a heavy bag of essays she graded before dawn with a cup of strong Earl Grey tea or black coffee. She spent most of her career at Capistrano Valley High School, where she led the school’s American Cultures, Character Counts, and National Honor Society programs, and was named Teacher of the Year.

Laura’s classroom told her students what she thought of them. She decorated it for every season and holiday so they felt welcomed and engaged before and after class. Before the end of the school year, she wrote out individual award certificates by hand, noting something special she saw in each student. She wanted them to leave that year feeling acknowledged and seen, whatever grade they received. When she and Will traveled around the country and abroad for his business, she carried a bag laden with her students’ papers which she graded on the plane.

In the summers, she taught manners classes to children, recruiting former students as her aides, and eventually her granddaughters Lily and Olivia who affectionately called her “Mimi.” Long after they left her classroom, Laura remained in her students’ lives, attending their graduations, weddings, and baby showers. She sent her students handwritten cards year after year. She continued substitute teaching after retirement and held her manners classes until the pandemic closed that chapter on her life’s work.

From her many childhood moves to different schools due to her father’s military service, she developed her renowned ability to make and keep enduring friendships. Hundreds of cards and letters originated from her home and traveled around the world each year, stamped and addressed in her memorable handwriting. Their absence is poignant. She loved helping her wide circle of friends — and their children — host events and bridal showers. People who knew Laura would be surprised to learn she considered herself “basically a shy person,” who counted overcoming her fear of public speaking among her great accomplishments, achieved by “pushing myself.”

Overcoming that fear became another strength: she felt a profound empathy for anyone who felt uncomfortable in a group. She was determined to draw out the “unique gift” in everyone. Raised in a home where holidays meant formal attire and her father’s patients brought her mother traditional tamales at Christmas, she said her parents’ values taught her kindness, optimism, uncompromising morals, and the belief good manners were about “making everyone around you feel comfortable.” She described her mother as “a lady in every sense of the word” who was “kind and empathetic to everyone.” She called her “my best friend.” She shrugged off those who teased her as “Miss Manners” because they understood neither her motivation nor her higher calling. She admired her husband’s “quick wit” and “one-liners,” recalling “he used to tell me you had to be intelligent to have a sense of humor.” They laughed together often.

Laura and Robert were close. He helped her edit and prepare her speeches, and she had him as a guest speaker when she taught F. Scott Fitzgerald. She read his legal briefs and sat and listened in courtrooms where he argued his appeals. One summer they taught her etiquette class together when the roster was heavy with older students she decided should learn “dating manners.” On ordinary school nights growing up, Robert’s friends were amazed by her weekday meals like Cornish game hens with lemon, steamed artichokes with drawn butter, and red potatoes with chopped parsley. She kept the same enthusiasms in her own circles, planning each year for her Gourmet Group, sometimes called the “Girls Who Just Want To Have Fun,” and her book clubs.

Laura’s Catholic faith was steady throughout her life. As a small girl in Minnesota, she was led to Mass by the hands of her grandmother and one of her great-aunts, two of four sisters whose father, widowed after their mother’s premature death, entrusted them to be raised in a convent by nuns. As an adult she made her parish home at St. Edward’s in Dana Point, where Robert made his first communion, he and Doreen (the “daughter I never had”) were married, and her twin granddaughters Lily and Olivia were baptized. She later wrote it was “very meaningful to me” when her husband Will “became a Catholic” the summer before he died in 2008. From that faith flowed her life of service: she volunteered for the Children’s Home Society and the Orangewood Children’s Foundation, and she served as a student advisor to the Orange County Philharmonic Society, sharing her love of symphony and the arts.

Mimi was a treasured grandmother who for over a decade drove faithfully to Los Angeles to babysit them, to take them to Starbucks to hear about their lives, and to attend their art openings, soccer games, and ballet recitals.

Two years after her husband’s death, she brought her friend John Maitino into the wide circle of friends she had built over decades. They traveled together to Kauai, went to her former students’ and their children’s weddings, and watched Robert present his cases in court.

In her later years, she taped a quote to her mirror above a frosted bottle of Issey Miyake perfume which she put on before leaving her house. It read: “Don’t let the world stop you. Focus on the positive, and live your life, not your age!”

Laura loved her garden, carefully choosing her begonias, daffodils, irises, peonies, lilies, lavender, bougainvillea, and hydrangeas of every color. When she left her Laguna Niguel home and moved to San Juan Capistrano, the roses she and Will planted and tended together followed Robert’s family through his several gardens. They bloom now at his home in Ladera Ranch. In her last months spent in her favorite room there, she loved looking out her bedroom window when the morning dew sparkled on her and Will’s roses. Laura is now ageless.

She is survived by her son Robert Collings Little; daughter-in-law Doreen; twin granddaughters Lily and Olivia; nephew Carter (Lia) Collings Wystrach; brother-in-law Andrew Wystrach, husband of her late sister Susan; grandniece Emilia Wystrach; sister Celeste Collings; niece Desiree Darden; stepsons Brad (Kathy) and Chris Little, their cousins Kay Hicks and Janet Sweeney; cousin Charles (Fran) Vasaly; and relatives in Minnesota and elsewhere. She will rest beside her husband at the U.S. Naval Academy Columbarium in Annapolis.

In lieu of flowers, the Laura Little Character Counts Scholarship has been established in her memory to support students who show the qualities she spent her career teaching; a description and link appear below. A Mass in her honor and a celebration of her life will be announced.

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Laura was the founder of the Character Counts program at Capo Valley High School, where she inspired generations of students to lead with integrity, compassion, and purpose. Her legacy lives on in the many young people she encouraged to be their very best selves.

In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation to the Laura Little Scholarship Fund. This fund will continue Laura's commitment to uplifting and supporting future generations.

Donations can be made via Zelle using the code below or by check made payable to the Laura Little Scholarship Fund.

Mailing Address for Checks:
Laura Little Scholarship Fund
27606 Via Fortuna
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675

Direct Deposit Information (Chase Bank):
Routing number: 322271627
Account number: 2917952944