November 30, 1948 – October 3, 2021
BOWIE – Jacquelyn Gardiner, 72, Bowie, TX moved on to her heavenly home on Oct. 3, 2021 in Decatur, TX. The last words she heard on this earth were her son Dillon saying, I love you Mom, as he held her in his arms. She is pain-free now, fully healthy and dancing on the streets of gold.
Jackie’s wishes were for her body to be donated to UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas for scientific research. Even in death, she wanted to try and help others, with hopes the medical community could learn more about the health problems she endured so that others may not have to.
A memorial service to celebrate the life of Jackie will take place at 11 a.m. on Oct. 8 in Bowie at Victory Church, 518 Hutchinson Street. Pastor John Little of Victory Church and Pastor Ricky Kerr of Missionary Baptist Church (St. Jo) will both be officiating.
Jackie was born in Somerville, NJ on Nov. 30, 1948, to Florence Mabel (Matthews) and Meridith Bailey Sawyer. She didn’t stay a Yankee long….as the family moved to Florida for years where Jackie fell in love with the beaches and the ocean. Jackie worked as a bartender, a waitress, a cook, a seamstress…many times working two to three jobs at a time to make ends meet.
Jackie always wanted a huge family, and while her blood family remained small, she made everyone she loved to feel like family, thus gaining her huge family after all. She loved family gatherings and would find most any reason to try and pull everyone together. She longed deeply for a big happy family. A huge animal lover all of her life, Jackie spent many years as a volunteer and foster home for various North Texas animal rescues. Her giving and nurturing personality made the world a better place just because she was here.
Jackie was a proud woman, strong, independent, hard-headed even at times, but the main focus of her pride and joy was her son Dillon and his wife Brenda. She loved them without question and bragged on both of them to anyone who would listen. Jackie had turned her life completely over to our Lord and Saviour many years ago and we have no doubt she is rejoicing with him now. She loved deeply and will be missed fiercely.
She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, Bobby; son, John Youngblood, Jr.; brothers, Leo Walters and Gregory Howard; sister-in-law, Linda Walters and grandson, Aubrey Foster.
Those left to mourn her loss on this earth are her son, Dillon Steen and wife, Brenda, Bowie; nephew, Michael Walters, Saint Jo; grandson, Travis Foster, Clarendon, AR; “adopted sister” and lifelong friend, Sue Brewer, Saint Jo; numerous cousins, friends, caregivers and loved ones….both two-legged and four-legged.
In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be made in her memory to the animal charity of your choice, and any time you see the color purple or run on a sandy beach think of her, may her memory live forever in the waves.
John 14:30-31 “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me. But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence.”
Arrangements are entrusted to White Family Funeral Home and UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
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