Tracey Lea Allison Jenkins, loving wife, best friend, and sister in Christ, passed away on February 14, 2015. Recently a resident of Moab, she went home to Jesus on Valentine’s Day, after a brief illness, at the age of 59.
Tracey was born at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, to Henry Thomas (Hank) Allison and June Aileen Ring Allison on April 12, 1955. June died when she was young, and Tracey was raised by her father and stepmother, Bonnie Louise Pipkin Hatchell Allison. Henry was a Military Police Officer in the Army, so Tracey grew up on or near military bases, including Naha, Okinawa.
When her father retired, the family settled in Mineral Wells, Texas. With a caring, selfless nature and a servant’s heart, it was no surprise that she chose nursing as her profession. Shortly after graduating from Mineral Wells High School in 1974, Tracey enlisted in the Army’s Registered Nurse Program. She attended Texas Women’s University in Denton, Texas, followed by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Nursing (WRAIN) in Washington, DC, and graduated in 1978 with her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, her RN license, and her rank as first lieutenant, Army Nurse Corps.
Tracey loved the Lord, and was active in the Officer’s Christian Fellowship (OCF) throughout her Army career. She met her husband, Roy Jenkins, through the OCF Bible Study they both attended at Fort Hood, Texas, their first Army assignment. They were married in the post chapel at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, in 1980, following Tracey’s graduation from the Army’s Intensive Care Unit Nursing Course. The two of them were blessed to be stationed together, with postings at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, Fort Irwin, California, and Fort Sam Houston, Texas. Tracey’s specialty was Cardiac Intensive Care, and she completed her Master of Science in Nursing at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, in 1991. Her final tour was at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, where she retired from active duty as Major in 1995.
After taking a couple of years off for “rest and personal enjoyment,” Tracey cheered Roy on as he began his second career, one with the National Park Service, so Tracey and he could live in the places where they liked to play. For the next 20 years, the two of them enjoyed adventures at Grand Teton National Park, Glen Canyon NRA, Yellowstone, and finally, Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Tracey loved the outdoors – hiking, wildlife watching, kayaking, bicycling and rockhounding were only some of her favorite pastimes. She fell in love with red rock canyon country, and spent many happy hours exploring and scrambling on slickrock near Moab & St. George, Utah, and Sedona, Arizona. As an amateur photographer, she was intrigued by patterns in nature, and took hundreds of close-up pictures of sunsets, flowers, lichens, moqui marbles and slickrock, with all its colorful undulating forms and cross-bedding designs in stone.
Tracey was a compassionate and giving person. She lived a life of grace and kindness, with a steadfast faith in God, a calming peace within her, and a fierce loyalty and love for her family and friends.
Tracey, you loved deeply and were greatly loved. You will be sorely missed, but we know you are in a far, far, better place, and look forward with hopeful anticipation to seeing you again.
She was preceded in death by her parents Henry and June, stepmother Bonnie, stepmother Geraldine Laura Redmond McFarland, and stepbrother Robert Charles McFarland. Survivors include her husband Roy; brother Henry T. Allison, Jr. (Hank), his wife Cheryll Allison and their family; stepsister Janice Ware, her husband R. J. Ware and their family; stepbrother William (Sonny) Hatchell, his wife Mary Hatchell and their family; stepbrother Edwin Lloyd McFarland, his wife Sandra and their family; and brother-in-law Walter M. Jenkins, Jr.
Condolences can be sent to roy.jenkins@gmail.com.Contributions to honor her memory can be made to: Memorial and Honor Program, Huntsman Cancer Foundation, 500 Huntsman Way, Salt Lake City, UT 84108, or at http://healthcare.utah.edu/huntsmancancerinstitute/giving/huntsman-cancer-foundation/ways-to-
give/in-honor-or-memory.php.
