Nancy McCormack

We are celebrating the life of Nancy Jane Bernice Tucker McCormack of Alba, TX, with a Memorial Service at the First Baptist Church, Quitman TX on January 18, 2014 at 3:00. She was a loving woman to all her family and friends. She was loved dearly and will be greatly missed. She was a devout Christian and knew Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior. She joined her Savior, husband and infant son on December 17, 2013. She was 93 years young.
Nancy Jane Bernice Tucker, was born in a farm house in Comanche County, Texas, on May 2, 1920, to Joseph Lewis and Grace Isabelle Farley Tucker, the ninth of ten children. At the age of 3 she started working in the vegetable garden, tending the chickens and doing household chores. By the time she graduated from high school, she was plowing, planting and harvesting the crops, primarily cotton and peanuts. Throughout school she actively participated in music, drama and sports, which she excelled and lettered 4 years in high school in tennis, basketball, baseball and volleyball. She worked in the Superintendent's office under the National Youth Association program. She was a good student and loved to read which she continued throughout her entire life. She was nicknamed "Songbird" because of her beautiful soprano voice. She sang all her life. She sang at church, school functions, in the community and a solo at her Commencement Graduation.
While a student at Scott & White Nursing School, she secretly took flying lessons but had to quit when discovered. There she met the love of her life, soul mate and best friend, Lt. Joseph Lawrence McCormack, Jr., while he was stationed at Camp Hood. They were married July 3, 1943. Nancy graduated from Scott & White Nursing School in 1944, as the first officially married student. She was married to Lt. Col. (Ret.) JL McCormack, Jr., for nearly 60 years.
Being the wife of an Army Officer, Corp of Engineers, Nancy traveled with her husband throughout the world. She lived in Killeen, TX, where their first son, Joseph Lawrence, III, was born and died in infancy; in Seoul, Korea during the occupation after WWII, where their daughter, Vicky Lee, was born; at Sangley Naval Air Station in Cavite, the Philippine Islands during the HUK Revolution, where their daughter, Margaret Ann, was born; and the Presidio, San Francisco, CA, where their son, Jay Tucker, was born and raised his first three years in Naples, Italy, while her husband was attached to the Southern Command of NATO traveling throughout the Mediterranean and Europe. Nancy has traveled to every continent except Antarctica, many states and foreign countries, some many times. Multiple generations have been instilled with the joy of learning, travel, art, music, history, sports and an appreciation of what a wonderful country we have the privilege of calling our home, the United States of America.
Nancy raised her children in a Christian home as she herself was raised. She was active in volunteering at church and in the community throughout her life. Education was important and all her children and grandchildren are college graduates. All have been active in volunteering. Her home was always a welcoming refuge and she was the host mother for many foreign students while they were in college.
She worked throughout her life as a Registered Nurse in all areas and later as a Psychiatric Nurse in the Mental Health field where she was an Associate Professor with the University of Alabama Bachelor of Nursing program at their field office in Pascagoula, MS.
Nancy was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the First Families of Texas, The National Society Colonial Dames XVII Century, the United States Daughters of 1812, the National Society of Magna Charta Dames with 6 direct decedents signers and the Society of Descendants of Knights of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.
She is survived by her children: Vicky (Dr. Bill Spilker), Alba TX; Margaret McCormack, Kansas City, MO, and Jay McCormack, Fredericksburg, TX. Grandchildren: Brian Boothe (Molly), Raleigh, NC; Katrina (Dr. Ryan) Wymore, Kansas City, MO; Tucker McCormack, Washington, DC; Claire (Ben) Hogan & William McCormack of Dallas, TX; Jennifer (Sam) Warner and great-grandsons, Brooks & Callaway of Cumming, GA. She is also survived by Susie McCormack Bernard, Fredericksburg, TX; her Chinese family: Chaing & Lydia Lin, Dr. Doris Lin (Dr. Jeffery Carlson), Charles (Cathy Tono) Lin and great-grandchildren, Zane Lin & Alexandra Carlson; her Jewish family: Roberto Bruckstein & Nancy Campbell, Lizette Bruckstein & Liane (Dr, Bron) Hedmann; her best friends of more than 50 years, Cecilia Sarra, Bath, England; Gloria Perkins, Altus, OK her roommate at Scott & White; & Pat Davis, Fort Worth, TX; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Preceded in death were her infant son, Joseph Lawrence McCormack, III, October of 1945 and her husband, JL McCormack, Jr., in February of 2003; parents, Joseph Lewis and Grace Isabelle Farley Tucker; five brothers: John, Hazel, Raymond, JW who was killed at the invasion of Guam, and RC; and four sisters: Marzie Peninger, Mignon Peninger, Ida Mae McMillan and Altha Locke. She was the last of this Tucker Clan.
Nancy Tucker McCormack's ashes will be interned later in the spring of 2014 at the Dublin Live Oak Cemetery in Dublin TX in the Tucker Family Plot with her husband and infant son.
In lieu of flowers a donation may be made to any of the following charities or the charity of your choice. Palmer Home for Children, PO Box 746, Columbus MS 39703; North Texas Academy, 3846 No Hwy 144, Granbury TX 76048; African Leadership Missions, PO Box 994044, Redding CA 96099; or the Salvation Army PO Box 2050, Tyler TX 75710.