Judith Ilse Tachau

Judy was born on February 19, 1950 in Iowa City, IA to two German Jewish immigrants, Herman and Heidi Tachau. While she was still a baby, the family moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico where Herman worked as an engineer in the New Mexico State highway department. Her brothers, Robert and Paul, were born in Santa Fe in 1955 and 1957 respectively.

While she was growing up, Judy swam competitively, played the bassoon in her high school band, and was a drummer for the marching band. After finishing high school, she attended Eastern New Mexico State University before transferring to the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Deaf Education there.

After finishing college, she taught the deaf in Claremont, New Hampshire. Then she lived in North Carolina, Germany, Ohio and Washington state with her first husband, Joe Horne, who passed away from a degenerative brain disease.

She met her second husband, Jim, in 1990 while she was teaching high school resource in California.

Jim and Judy married on June 28, 1991. Their first and only child, Jonathan, was born on April 12th, 1992. They moved to Las Vegas later in 1992, and bought a house in 1994, where she lived for the rest of her life. She stayed home to raise Jonathan. She volunteered as a volunteer teacher’s aide for each of Jon’s teachers in grade school. When Jon entered high school she volunteered as “the Book Lady,” giving away used books to any student who wanted one. She did this until she fell ill with cancer in 2018.

Judy also went back to work as a substitute teacher after Jon finished high school in 2010. Judy and Jim also hosted two foreign exchange students, the first in 2013 and the second in 2015.

Judy was known by many to be perhaps the sweetest lady they’d ever known. She was generous, caring, and the embodiment of kindness.

She enjoyed creating arts and crafts, which usually came in the form of watercolor paintings, but also in more unusual forms. In 2006 she created a “sculpture” made from a wooden ladder, water bottles, ribbon, and other supplies to promote water conservation in Southern Nevada. This sculpture was put on display at the Las Vegas Valley Water District headquarters. She also incorporated her calligraphy skills into many of her projects.

Judy enjoyed attending the theater for both movies and plays, and was a loyal customer of the Rainbow Company Children’s Ensemble, a local Las Vegas youth theater company.

She also enjoyed growing flowers in her garden, researching spirituality, reading about Jewish history, and much more.

Judy died September 19, 2020 at home, surrounded by loved ones after losing her valiant battle with cancer.

We all love her dearly and will always miss her. She was our shining light in the dark.