Terry Jo Gough

Terry Jo (TJ) Gough was born in Orange, Texas, to David James Gough and Lillian Bell Gough. As a child, Terry Jo lived in various Texas towns but called Uvalde her family home. She graduated from Uvalde High School and Texas Tech University, majoring in education. She passed away in San Antonio on January 21, 2026, from heart disease complications.

Terry Jo was a teacher for 47 years. Along the way, she taught reading and math, but most of her career in education was spent teaching Spanish. She taught in Judson ISD for 22 years. In addition to teaching Spanish, she was also a dance team director. For 19 years, she was honored to lead the Starlite Drill Team. Terry Jo felt lucky to be teaching the two things she so loved — dance and Spanish. She had taken ballet and danced all of her life. Her father’s family was from Mexico, and the language and the culture were deep in her heart.

Terry retired after 28 years in the public schools, and then she began to teach at St. Luke’s Episcopal School where she taught Spanish in grades 4-8.

During her years teaching, she was fortunate to be in charge of many student groups traveling throughout Mexico and then later to Europe, fulfilling another interest in her life.

TJ believed that a teacher’s job was more than simply passing on knowledge of the subject taught; a teacher should also try to influence a child’s character, urging the student to want to do the best job possible and to do “the right thing,” displaying good choices in judgment.

Terry Jo Gough was preceded in death by her parents, David and Lillian Gough, and her sister Linda Sue Gough Creech. She is survived by her nephew, James Creech, of Uvalde, and numerous cousins. God also blessed her with so many wonderful friends throughout her life who became her family, especially Debra and Steve Walker, the late Dick and Leila Meacham, Susan and Warren Blanchard and their son, Steven, of San Antonio, and Mark and Sarita McCullough and their daughters Tatum and Eloise, of Harlingen, as well as childhood friends who remained her close friends always, Sarabeth McCarley McFadin and Lucy Sansom.

Terry Jo touched so many lives and hearts, and she will be fondly remembered and greatly missed. Memorial services will be held on Tuesday, March 10, at 2:00 p.m. at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in San Antonio. To honor her memory, please donate to the American Heart Association or any animal rescue organization.