JUANITA TARVIN,
also known as Jennie Tucker, left the lung cancer she had been battling for 20 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 U.S. Navy and U.S. Army and saw military action in Kuwait; brothers, the older two brothers were World War II veterans in the U.S. Army, and her younger brother served in the U.S. Navy; along with other cousins, uncles, aunts, nieces, and nephews who preceded her in departing.
She was born in Santa Fe, N.M., 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 Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, and Emma Salazar of Santa Fe, N.M., whose father was an immigrant from Seville, Spain, and whose mother was of Chimayo, N.M. The family left Santa Fe in 1940 for California, and her father worked for the railroad in Napa Junction and finally settled in Sacramento, Calif. She took a sabbatical from Grant Union High that she had attended. Then, in 1955, she and her husband eloped to Reno, Nev., 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, Ark., where the family moved in 1970.
She worked at Franklin Electric in Jacksonville, Ark., 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; 15 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. Arrangements by Moore’s Jacksonville Funeral Home, 1504 N. JP Wright Loop Road, Jacksonville, Ark. 72076, (501) 982-2136 Sign Juanita’s online guestbook at www.mooresjacksonvillefuneralhome.com