Judith Laurel Sanborn (née Shannabarger), 85, loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and widow, joined the Lord on Thursday, July 18, 2024, in San Angelo, Texas.
A celebration of Judy’s long and exceptional life will be held at 2:00pm Friday, August 2, at Harper Funeral Home in San Angelo, Texas, with the Reverend Celia Ellery and the Reverend Doctor Cole Jodon of The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd officiating.
Judith Laurel Sanborn was born on July 10, 1939, in Pekin, Illinois, to Vera and Gale Shannabarger. She spent her formative years in Pekin and attended Douglas Elementary, Washington Junior High, and graduated from Pekin High School in 1957. From 1957 to 1961, she attended the University of Illinois and majored in English. Reading, language, words, crosswords puzzles, and a thirst for knowledge and love of travel were life-long pursuits.
For nearly all her life, to those from Pekin, Judy was Cooty. Judy’s brother, Philip, also known as Uncle Shag, when a small child, could not say Judy. He called his younger sister Cooty, and the name stuck. Incidentally, Cooty’s mother was addressed as Ma Coot.
Judy met, and after a six-week romance, married Wallis Remsen Sanborn II, AKA Wally, on July 7, 1962, a marriage that would last for 44 years until Wally’s death on January 8, 2007. Judy and Wally spent the next decade in the Far East, living a life of international travel and exploration, with stops in Singapore—where their children were born—Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan, Korea, Tahiti, Australia, and New Zealand. While in the Far East, Judy attended to their very active social schedule and received visits from politicians, international business executives, government officials, and expats from all over the world.
Judy, Wally, the children—Diana and Trip, and the Whippets—Sultan, Lucianna, and Ladybird, settled in Houston in 1972. For the next eight years, the family remained at 10702 Longmont Avenue.
In 1974, a precipitating event, and a lack of quality nursing at Rosewood Hospital in Houston, led to a profound decision by Judy: She knew she could be a better nurse than those she had seen at Rosewood. And boy, was she right. Beyond right.
Judy started in the Registered Nurse-Bachelor of Science in Nursing program (RN BSN) at Houston Baptist University, and in May 1979, Judy graduated with her RN BSN degree, just in time to move to Taylor. At forty years old, by the way. At forty, a GN.
At John’s Community Hospital in Taylor, Judy was a force, one who always wore white, one who wore her nursing cap, one who went from graduate nurse to Director of Nursing Services in a decade.
Judy entered nursing for the right reason, not for money, but to help patients, and through a forty-year career, Judy helped thousands and thousands of patients, and she supported hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of family members in their time of greatest need.
Judy and Wally settled in San Angelo in 1991, where she continued her nursing career at San Angelo Community Medical Center, where she continued to wear white, until her retirement in 2019. Judy was a floor nurse first. Of that, she was proud, and rightly so.
Judy was also ever so proud of her family, whom she loved fiercely and passionately.
Judy loved spending time with her great-grandchildren, Seth Arcos and Catalina Civitello, and though they lived far, she loved them close.
And she was Momo or Grandma Judy to Danielle Sowa, Sara Sowa, Mia Burton-Sanborn, and Thomas Sanborn, who absolutely adored her.
Judy was also dearly loved by her children, Diana and Trip, who were always grateful for the role that their mother played in their lives. As was Vernell Jackson, for whom 1301 Lexington was home, and for whom Judy was Mom.
Judy was an exceptional mother-in-law, too, and Amanda and Tony can attest to that.
And Judy was rich and righteous in friends and friendship. She had her church friends, her nurse friends, her Taylor friends, her Illinois friends.
Judy was preceded in death by her mother and father, Vera and Gale Shannabarger, her husband, Wally, her brother Philip, and her beloved, beloved daughter Diana. All of whom have gone home to Heaven, and with whom Judy now resides.
Following the celebration of life, Judy’s ashes will be delivered by her family to the Pacific Ocean, as were Wally’s.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be sent to San Angelo Meals for the Elderly, The International Wildlife Coalition, the Angelo State University Department of Nursing, The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, or any kitty charities you know of, for Judy loved cats.
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