Our beloved mother, Judy Grimes passed into the Lord's comfort and eternal life on Friday, October 7th 2016. We know that our dad, Jim Grimes came to escort her, because it was their Anniversary. They would have been married 55 years on Friday. Even though he's been gone for so many years, he was still the love of her life and she missed him every day.
Judy was born March 23, 1938 in Peoria, IL. She moved with her parents and her dearest, best friend, her little sister Pamela to Dallas, TX when they were young. They lived in the University Park area and she graduated from Hillcrest High School in 1956. She then went on to Kilgore College, graduating in 1958. One of her most favorite and proudest achievements was being a Kilgore Rangerette! In fact, Gussie Nell Davis was a common name to us growing up because being a Rangerette was such a fun, positive experience for her that truly helped shape her life. A quote I found says, "Davis believed that the discipline and devotion required of a Rangerette built confidence and poise in her young women that prepared them for challenges of life beyond college".
This was certainly true for our mom as she grew into being a gracious, beautiful, loving, wonderful Christian woman.
Shortly, after coming back to Dallas, she met our dad Jim through their church youth group. They married here in Dallas at Highland Park Presbyterian in 1961. Before having kids, she worked as an elementary school assistant teacher, loving, instructing and mentoring small children which was truly one of her gifts. In 1964, they bought their beautiful brand new home on the edge of Lake Highlands so that they could raise a family in the Richardson ISD. Oldest, Alisa was born in 1966, middle Malinda (Mindy) was born in 1968, and youngest Kimberly was born in 1971. They loved having parties, grilling or simply sitting on the swing on our outdoor backyard patio that our dad had built himself. After caring for our father due to a prolonged illness and ultimately his death in 1979, she found herself a widow at 40 years old with three small girls. God truly graced her at that time with wisdom, strength and courage. She became our rock, our hero, our biggest cheerleader and our best friend. Although she suddenly had to go back to work full time in order to support us, she never complained. We always felt loved and cared for and extremely grateful for all that we had. She taught us to be smart, respectful and kind, above all else. Back in the day, we had "Citizenship" as a categoryon our report cards. And we had better have an A in that always! She always felt that you could learn anything or do any type of work, but if you couldn't get along with people then you would never be successful, no matter what you did in life. She instilled a confidence and grace in the three of us that we'll forever be thankful for.
Even though her sister, Pam moved to Florida and started her family more than 40 years ago, they remained as close as ever in hearts and minds. We always knew when it was Pam on the phone because they had a special, sweet bond that you could just hear in their voices. Mom loved going down to Pensacola and we went as often as we could. Pam, her late husband Fred and our two cousins Donald and Frederick were our closest family as we were growing up. Mom and Pam loved each other fiercely and ultimately showed us the strength and bond of family and love.
Mom was such an inspiration and seemed to be able to do it all!! She had learned lots of "handywork" abilities from our dad and knew how to use a tool! She built a laundry room, installed carpet, laid hardwood floors, hung doors, painted and knew how to rewire things (among lots of other things)! She was determined to not be helpless and figure things out for herself. There really wasn't a task that she was not able to handle. At one point, she even ventured out of her comfort zone and learned to scuba dive with a friend of hers! As we've gotten older, it's more and more apparent how much strength, knowledge, spunk, bravery and love that God blessed her with to carry on and raise us. She was so amazing and somehow never ever gave herself enough credit.
As much as she loved us, we found out that she loved being a grandmother even more! After Alisa married, Mom's first grandchild, Jessica was born in 2001. We all made it possible for Mom to "retire" from work and at 63 become full-time GiGi! This was truly the best gift and experience of her life. James was born in 2003 and Nicole in 2006. We say that she loved these 3 more than she loved us! And that 's ok - that's A LOT!!! These three became her pride and joy and she called each of them "precious" all the time. She was with each of them from the time that they were born and wanted to spend as much time with them as she could. She loved being around them and went to every game, every recital, every concert...you name it, she was there. And if she couldn't be there for whatever reason, she cried! Being GiGi to these three and loving & supporting them was the most important thing in her life for the last 15 years. She was so involved that all the teachers, kids, friends and friend's parents called her GiGi. She was so proud of these three precious gifts and we will be forever grateful that she was able to be such a huge part of their lives and always will be.
We are so shocked and saddened to lose our mother and our GiGi. She was an incredibly strong woman who shared love and joy wherever she went. Her beautiful blue eyes always seemed to smile at people! We always commented that no matter where we went, someone talked to her. She claimed that she didn't start it or know why, but we knew she was smiling at them. And that always felt good. She was a blessing to all of us and we pray for God's continued love and care for her and for us.
Survived by: Daughter Alisa Grimes Stokes of Monument, CO, her husband Jim and three children, Jessica, James and Nicole. Daughter Malinda (Mindy) Grimes Popken of Larkspur,CO and her husband Tom. Daughter Kimberly Grimes of Dallas, TX. Sister Pam Davidson of Pensacola, FL and her children Donald and Frederick and their families. We would like to include the entire Stokes family and the entire Popken/Whittet families as her extended family, as well. She is loved and always will be by each and every one of us.
Judy is preceded by husband Jim Grimes, her beloved Grandmother and her parents.
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