Krista Ann McGlasson

Krista Ann McGlasson (Booker), 53, of Lubbock, Texas, passed away unexpectedly on September 6, 2026, leaving behind a family and community of friends struggling to imagine a world without her light in it.

Krista was born November 2, 1972, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Larry and Ann Booker and grew up in Belen. Her parents owned a travel agency, making Krista what she affectionately called a “travel agent brat.” Adventure, animals, and curiosity were woven into her life from the beginning.

She grew up alongside her brother, JD Booker, and her longtime friend Stacy Smith, one of those special people who knew Krista from the earliest chapters of her life and remained part of her story through the years. Krista was the granddaughter of Harold and Cleo Booker and Rand and Helen Ericson.

Krista loved horses for as long as anyone could remember. Of all the horses in Krista’s stories, her daughter Amanda remembers hearing about Nacho most. Krista described riding him as “controlled chaos,” which somehow feels perfectly suited to a woman who embraced life with so much spirit.

Krista learned resilience young. She began experiencing seizures at 14, but she never allowed them to define her or determine the boundaries of the life she would live. She adapted, persevered, got back up, and kept going.

More than that, Krista had an extraordinary ability to find the silver lining. She looked for the good, even when life wasn’t particularly good to her. And when someone she loved couldn’t find the light themselves, Krista often held it for them until they could.

A Love That Lasted a Lifetime

In the fall of 1990, during Krista’s senior year of high school, she met JJ McGlasson, a boy three years younger.

As the family tells it, Krista won him over with her dad’s International pickup truck.

Krista graduated in May 1991 and attended the Bel-Rea Institute of Animal Technology in Denver, Colorado. During those years, she and JJ had some growing up and exploring of life to do. Still, whenever Krista came home, they found their way to one another. JJ’s mom remembers Krista calling from college, making sure she got JJ on the phone—and doing a pretty effective job of discouraging him from becoming too interested in anyone else.

Their paths sometimes wandered, but they always found their way back to each other.

Eventually, finding their way back became finding their way home.

Krista and JJ married September 5, 1998, in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico. Together they built a marriage, a family, and a life.

Their daughter, Amanda, describes her parents’ example of love as extraordinary.

They were husband and wife, but also partners, best friends, and home to one another. Their love was deep, playful, resilient, and unmistakable to anyone fortunate enough to witness it.

On September 5, 2026, Krista and JJ celebrated their 28th wedding anniversary, more than 35 years after two teenagers first found something special in each other.

Some people spend a lifetime searching for their person.

Krista and JJ somehow found theirs when they were still kids.

Animals, Adventure, and Finding Her Purpose

Krista turned her lifelong love of animals into much more than a career. After studying at Bel-Rea, she worked as a veterinary technician, caring for animals of every shape and size.

Her stories included a huge beaver, two mountain lion cubs named Moonshadow and Phantom, and even helping retrieve a racquetball from an alligator.

Because apparently an alligator with a racquetball problem was simply another day at work for Krista.

Her work with animals took many forms. She also worked in dog grooming and shared her knowledge by teaching animal husbandry to children with special needs. That work brought together so much of who Krista was: her love of animals, her patience, her ability to meet people exactly where they were, and her instinct for helping others discover what they were capable of.

Her own dogs were always family. Today, Monster, Nyx, Pia, and Pi carry a little piece of the enormous love Krista had for animals throughout her life.

Krista was also never finished becoming Krista.

In 2023, she attended Lubbock Cosmetology Institute to pursue a newfound passion for esthetics. After years of working with animals, she joked about working with “clients who don’t bite.”

She wasn’t afraid to reinvent herself. If life offered another adventure, Krista was willing to see where it led.

Mom, Best Friend, Rock

In 2000, Krista and JJ welcomed their daughter, Amanda.

To Amanda, Krista wasn’t simply Mom. She was her rock, her best friend, and her number-one supporter. She was there for the victories and heartbreaks, the milestones and ordinary days. Whatever Amanda wanted to do, her mother was firmly in her corner.

They had morning coffee together every day. Even when they weren’t physically together, somehow Krista and Amanda still had their morning coffee together.

Krista’s mothering heart extended far beyond her own daughter.

She adopted the kids who were around.

If someone needed a mom, encouragement, advice, a safe place, or simply someone who believed in them, there was a good chance Krista made room for them. To her, family was never limited by biology.

In 2024, Amanda married Austin Green, and Krista watched her daughter begin the next chapter of her own life. Perhaps one of the greatest gifts Krista and JJ gave Amanda was allowing her to grow up knowing what extraordinary love looked like.

A Rock and a Light

Krista was vibrant, fiercely loving, wonderfully independent, and unapologetically herself.

She listened without judgment. She showed up. She gave people permission to be complicated, imperfect, and completely themselves. She knew when someone needed advice and when they simply needed another person sitting beside them.

Life gave Krista reasons to become hard.

She chose light instead.

She looked for the silver lining. She looked for the good. And she loved her people fiercely.

Krista leaves behind her beloved husband of 28 years, JJ McGlasson; her daughter and son-in-law, Amanda and Austin Green; her mother, Ann Booker; her brother and sister-in-law, JD and Jill Booker; her mother-in-law, Tommie Fay Wylie; her father-in-law and his wife, Donny and Karen McGlasson; numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins; her beloved dogs, Monster, Nyx, Pia, and Pi; and an enormous chosen family of friends and honorary children whose lives are forever different because Krista was part of them.

She was preceded in death by her father, Larry Booker, and grandparents, Harold and Cleo Booker and Rand and Helen Ericson.

A Celebration of Life honoring Krista will be held Sunday, September 13, 2026, at 1:00 p.m. at Lake Ridge Chapel & Memorial Designers, 6025 82nd Street, Lubbock, Texas 79424.

In lieu of flowers, Krista’s family asks those wishing to honor her memory to consider supporting organizations whose work reflects her lifelong love of animals and wildlife: Wildlife West Nature Park⁠ or South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center⁠.

There will never be enough words to adequately describe what has been lost. But Krista’s legacy isn’t contained in the date her life ended. It lives in a husband who found his person when they were teenagers. In a daughter who got to call her mother her best friend. In every extra kid Krista simply decided was one of hers. In the animals she cared for, the children she taught, the friends she never judged, and everyone who walked away from time with Krista feeling a little more accepted and a little less alone.

Krista taught the people around her to get back up when life knocked them down. To look for the silver lining. To love without judgment. To keep discovering who you are.

She lived boldly. She loved extraordinarily. She always looked for the light.

And she left an awful lot of it behind.