Judy Lynn Killgore

Wednesday morning July 28th 2021 Judy Killgore died after a year long battle with cancer. She fought till the end not wanting to leave family and friends behind. Being more concerned that they would be okay than how she was doing. Judy grew up both as a child of the military and oil field. Traveling the world until she reached San Angelo, Texas. There she finished high school and while doing so met the man she would spend the rest of her life with, Andy Killgore. So on the 15th of July 1978 they got married and started their path together. Then after 5 years of getting to know each other they decided to have children. That is how Ian in 1983 and Sean in 1986 came to be. In 1993 she decided to make a change in her career path and become a nurse and went to school. With the guidance of several people and one in particular, Marianne Simpson, she new that becoming an operating room circulating nurse was what she needed to be. She worked at Shannon Hospital for almost 10 years and then never having lost the urge to travel she became a travel nurse going all over the U.S. working at hospitals in Arizona, Missouri, Virginia, Maine, Colorado, California and Texas. After 6 years of traveling on her own, with frequent visits from Andy wherever she was, Andy joined her in her travels and they wandered the country seeing the Atlantic to the Pacific and then settling in the Rocky Mountains in Lakewood Colorado for the next almost 10 years. In 2020 they decided to move back to San Angelo and work a few more years then retire and take up traveling again seeing more of the country than before. Between them they only had a few more states to visit before they had either been to or lived in all 50. Then the bad news hit. Diagnosis of terminal cancer. Judy, as many can attest, was an amazing nurse. She most often took better care of her patients than she did herself. She was an advocate and took care of the patient as part of a team and also on her own making certain that the care she gave was centered on the patient, whether a child or an elderly person, that they were safe and comfortable. She was also there if the outcome was not good and helped them as best she could. Judy loved to have fun as well. When she was a travel nurse she always asked the local people or searched the internet to find out what was going on around her that looked fun or different. She would go these events, festivals and seek out the fun and go to concerts and dance like no-one was watching. Judy and Andy could spend day after day together and enjoy each others company with rarely have a cross word. They could have fun doing something, going somewhere or just sitting in silence reading. They always held hands when they walked anywhere. They even held hands in the car driving down the road. Often they were asked if they were just married or still dating. The answer was no that even after more than 40 years “We hold hands because we love each other and like the contact.” There were hard times that had to be gotten through and fun times that were enjoyed. Through it all there was LOVE and Judy’s smile. There are so many more hours of telling to this story... Judy will be missed not just by Andy, Ian and Sean but also by family the people she knew and worked with and also by the patients she will never meet.