Trudy Kay Sheek

Trudy was the firstborn child of Thora and Ralph (Bud) Johnson. When Trudy was very young, her dad was in the Navy and stationed in California. After the war, the family lived in rural Illinois, where Trudy and her sister Lynn attended a one-room schoolhouse. A move to Des Plaines, IL, put the young family next door to lifelong friends the McCartneys. In Trudy’s 8th-grade year, a young man named Ed Swanson started coming around. The whole family adored Ed, and although both occasionally dated others in high school, they eventually married in 1964. Trudy attended nurses' training at Northwestern and worked as a nurse until she became a stay-at-home mother to Christina Lynn (1967) and Curtis Lee (1971). After the McCartneys moved to Texas, the Johnson/Swansons all moved to Plano, TX, leaving only Lynn behind to continue her teaching career. Although he had a contract to coach at Plano Sr High School, Ed wanted Trudy to be able to stay home with the kids, so he left coaching to work in business. During these years, the family was very active in First United Methodist Church in Carrollton and in subsequent years at various non-denominational churches. In 1980, Trudy began to have seizures, and doctors thought she had brain cancer. Trudy begged the Lord to allow her to live to see her children grow, and the mass in her brain grew smaller. She was healed of all seizures for 10 years, until the scar tissue in her brain from the original surgery shifted and hit a seizure center. But by this time, there were many medications that allowed her to live a full life. In Tina’s Sr. year of high school, Ed had his first cancer diagnosis. After two more times hearing those scary words, five months after Tina married Brian Finley, Ed passed away in March 1996. In June of that year, Curt wed Kristi Pinkston. Trudy attended Grief Share to deal with the extensive feeling of loss, losing her husband and having both kids fully fly the nest at the same time.

It was through Grief Share and church friends that Trudy met Alton Jackson Sheek (AJ). He was smitten from the start. The two were soon inseparable. After a romantic proposal overlooking a waterfall in North Carolina, the two were wed in February 1999. They spent many years attending Watermark church and lived in both Garland and McKinney. They loved to travel when they could, but also adored spending time with their grandchildren, Curt and Kristi’s Bailey and Brenna, and Christina and Brian’s Edwin, Abby, Andy, and Danny. Many happy years passed when the whole family (including Lynn now) lived in Allen and McKinney….with Curt and Kristi not far away in Greenville, TX. Recently, in July 2024, Tina and Brian and Lynn, and the kids moved to Severance, CO...with Trudy and AJ following in October 2024. An architect was hired to build the “Sugar Suite” (Trudy’s grandma's name is Sugar) as an addition to the house owned by Tina, Brian, and Lynn. It was our dearest wish that Trudy would see the mountains every day from her balcony – but knowing that she is witnessing the splendors of heaven brings us peace.

Trudy is survived by her husband, AJ Sheek; her sister, Lynn Johnson Gallimore; daughter, Christina (Tina) Finley and husband Brian Finley; her son Curt Swanson and wife Kristi Swanson; grandchildren Edwin, Abby, Andy, and Danny Finley, and Bailey Swanson Hobby and husband Adam, and Brenna Swanson

She is preceded in death by her parents, Ralph E.(Bud) Johnson and Thora Johnson, and her first husband Edwin J. Swanson

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to be made to The Salvation Army or Navigators. Links are provided below.