Traci Cerka Bawcom

Traci Cerka Bawcom was born in Waco, Texas on May 14, 1975 to Toni and Ricky Henderson. When she was six months old, Traci and her young parents moved to Amarillo, Texas. A short time later, Toni became a single mother and later met and married Frank Cerka. When Frank and Toni married, Traci inherited 3 older step siblings – Jerry, Jeana, and Jimmy Cerka. The following year, Traci welcomed a new baby sister, Kaci, into the family. 16 months later she welcomed a set of baby twin brothers, Brent and Brandon. She was her mother’s first born child and the fourth of the seven Cerka children.

Traci grew up in a loving home at Lake Tanglewood, right outside of Amarillo, Texas where she lived with her family for 20 years. She enjoyed summers of fishing, boating, skiing, and Traci’s favorite, tanning. She attended Lake Tanglewood community church and was a member of the Lake Tanglewood youth group. In high school she was a cheerleader, member of the girl’s show choir, and played on the varsity tennis team. In 1993, Traci graduated from Randall High School along with her brother Jimmy and began college the following year. Two years later she moved to Austin, Texas where she met and married her former husband Chris Bawcom. Together they had two children, Alexis now 15 and Skylar 10.

Shortly after becoming a single mother, Traci was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and was told that a double mastectomy was needed immediately, along with Chemo~therapy and radiation due to the severity of the cancer. At that point she promised herself and her children that she “would fight this fight and win” and so she did, thus becoming a breast cancer survivor. After regaining her health, she started attending Collin Community College. Two years later she was accepted into the nursing program at Collin Community College in August of 2014.

On September 13th, 2014 Traci experienced a stroke that caused complete left-side paralysis, due to a glioblastoma brain tumor. Because this is one of the most aggressive brain cancers and due to the severity of the condition, brain surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation treatments were required. Even though she knew there were no curative treatment and no correlation to her previous breast cancer, she was prepared to fight with everything she had and determined to win again. However after three months, multiple hospitals, a skilled rehabilitation facility, and 37 treatments later she was sent home on December 23, 2014 with hospice in tow.

Traci departed this life on Monday April 20th at 12:41 pm in her mother’s arms with family by her side. There was no pain, no suffering, no discomfort,

just perfect peace. Traci Cerka Bawcom is

loved and will be greatly missed.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Traci's honor to Faith Hospice & to Collin College Traci Bawcom Scholarship Fund.