Juanita Tarvin, also known as Jennie Tucker, left the lung cancer she had been battling for twenty years in the dust when on Maundy Thursday night, March 28, 2024. She began her journey to be reunited with her parents; husband, a Vietnam veteran, USAF; son, who served in the US Navy and US Army and saw military action in Kuwait; brothers, the older two brothers were World War II veterans in the US Army and her younger brother served in the US Navy; along with other cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces and nephews who preceded her in departing.

She was born in Sante Fe, New Mexico on September 14, 1937, the daughter of John Tucker of Streator Illinois, a World War I veteran who was a son of immigrant parents from New Castle in Tyme UK and Emma Salazar of Santa Fe New Mexico, whose father was an immigrant from Seville, Spain and her mother was of Chimayo, New Mexico. The family left Santa Fe in 1940, for California and her father worked for the railroad in Napa Junction and finally settled in Sacramento, California.

She took a sabbatical from Grant Union High that she had attended. Then in 1955, she and her husband eloped to Reno, Nevada and began their 54-year marriage together. She worked for and received her high school degree from Grant Union High School in 1968 when all four of her children were present and cheered when her name was called during the graduation ceremony. Her husband's last base for active duty was Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville, Arkansas where the family moved in 1970.

She worked at Franklin Electric in Jacksonville Arkansas in the 1970s through the 1990s. She served some time as a committee woman for the UAW while working at Franklin Electric. As the daughter and spouse of servicemen, she adapted well to travel and traveled with her family domestically due to transfers from air base to air base. She traveled internationally with her children after her husband had retired from active duty and stepped foot on five continents. She truly enjoyed to travel.

She was very friendly, outgoing, and everyone who met her liked her and learned to love her. She moved on leaving behind friends, acquaintances, associates doctors, nurses, valued medical staff that through skill, compassion, grit and determination, patience on all sides kept her health and spirits moving forward.

Surviving family members include, three children; six grandchildren; fifteen great-grandchildren; two great-great-granddaughters; as well as nieces; nephews; cousins; and beloved in-laws.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made for the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, and the Urology Care Foundation.

Mother will be missed.

Services will be private