Jimmie Cash's Obituary
Jimmie Kay Cash, 73, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma/Galena, Ohio, passed away from complications of Alzheimer’s disease on April 14, 2022.
Jimmie was born on May 1st, 1948 to James and Winnie Rowland. She always joked that she started talking early, and talked so much that her grandfather asked her if she ever stopped talking and she told him she just couldn’t. Jimmie had two siblings, Harold, affectionately known as Son, and Connie affectionately known as Connie. She perfected her supervisory skills by the time she was three, by practicing those skills, much to their chagrin, with Son and Connie. They lived in the country, up until their parents bought the Senior Citizens Nursing Home in Broken Arrow. The Rowlands finally moved all the way into the big city of Broken Arrow. In 1966, she was the Salutatorian of her graduating class at Broken Arrow Senior High School. We are sure she still remembered the one grade that led to her being second to her best friend Barbara Brown, the Valedictorian.
Jimmie met the love of her life, John Cash, in 8th grade, and she finally convinced him to date her in 1965. Despite his hesitations, he decided to marry her in 1967. In 1972, their only begotten daughter, Scottye, was born and their lives changed for the better. Scottye was the perfect child despite having colic for six months, asthma, allergies, a Type B personality- John is Type B too (she was a Type A+++), and an independent and rebellious streak. Scottye was such a perfect child and Jimmie was so laid back that her family begged her not to have another child, and she actually listened. Scottye gave Jimmie a run for her money. Jimmie absolutely loved finding Scottye and Malia in a place different than where they said they would be. Jimmie was so excited when the two made it back home at 2:00am. As Scottye and Malia opened the front door, Jimmie was there to greet them and let Malia know that Scottye would be spending the night alone and that she would watch Malia walk to her house across the street…well the details were a tad different, but I bet you all get the sentiment.
and Jimmie told Scottye that her time will come when her kids decided to follow in her footsteps with their own shenanigans.
While Jimmie and John only had Scottye, they were almost equally devoted to their nieces and nephews. Sydney was four years younger than Scottye and they were as close to sisters. Jared came along 14 years after Scottye was born, and then Lynn the year after. John and Jimmie treated them like their own children, going to sporting events, band concerts, and the like. When Sydney and James adopted Alex, he became their first as close to a grandchild as possible. Jared and Elizabeth added two more to the pseudo grandkids with the birth of Emma and Olivia.
In 2011, Jimmie and John became “Immie” and “Poppy” with the birth of Jake Preston Cash. Immie was so proud to be a grandma and Scottye was relegated to the lower position on the throne she had been at the top of for 39 years. In 2012, Jimmie and John had the surprise of their life, when Scottye called her mom from the parking lot of Ohio Reproductive to tell her that triplets were in our future. Jimmie helped Scottye start breathing again, and told her it was going to be okay…she likely laughed knowing that Scottye now had four opportunities to experience parenthood and have some retribution for what Scottye put she and John through, especially as an adolescent.
In April 2013, Immie and Poppy were fortunate to become grandparents to triplets: became Jackson Kieran Cash, Mackenzie Breanne Cash, and Cooper Reid Cash. Immie knew that Scottye was stressed partly because Scottye likes her sleep, however she convinced Scottye that she could make it and that she and Poppy would be there to support her and ALL the kids. Immie was born to be an Immie and loved spending time with her grandkids. She played the tickle came, much to the consternation of Scottye given the amount of noise it generated.
Jimmie and John were so dedicated to Scottye’s happiness and success that they made sure she had what she needed to reach her goals. They tried to instill the virtue of saving money, however Scottye is still trying to learn that lesson and may have ended up on their payroll from
time to time. Some of Jimmie’s proudest moments were when Scottye: graduated with a Ph.D. in social work, received any type of grant funding, had papers accepted for publication, traveled the world to present papers at international conferences, and received teaching awards. The day before Jimmie died, Scottye found out that she was voted, by the undergraduate students, the Undergraduate Professor of the Year. Scottye immediately went to her mom’s room and told her mom about the award. Jimmie responded by opening her eyes, looking directly into Scottye’s eyes, and closed her mouth ,which were the only ways she could respond at that time. Even in her last days, Jimmie showed how proud she was of her daughter, Scottye and this will be a memory that will live with Scottye forever.
In the past couple of years, Scottye thanked her mom and dad for all of their support. Jimmie and John told her that they always wanted to support her, and the best way she could say thank you was to support her kids when they needed help.
Jimmie could best be described as determined, generous, and passionate about her family, work, and church. She didn’t do things half way, didn’t procrastinate, and expected perfection from herself… and sometimes from others as well. Given these characteristics, nursing was the best career she could have chosen, and she did it well. She started her nursing career as a nurse aide at Saint Francis Hospital in 1967, and after she graduated from the best university ever, University of Oklahoma, she returned to Saint Francis Hospital as an RN. Jimmie’s personality motivated her to obtain her Master’s in Nursing from Texas Women’s University in Irving, Texas. Upon graduating, she transitioned into leadership roles in the nursing field and at Saint Francis Hospital.
Jimmie had the heart of a servant and showed her dedication to others through mission trips with her church. She and John traveled to Ukraine and Belize where she was able to provide compassionate, medical support to those in need. Jimmie and John were members of the Broken Arrow Church of Christ, and when the church doors were open, she would be there. She attended baby showers, wedding showers, funeral services, made meals for others, and everything in-between and above and beyond. She was so dedicated to attending church, when COVID provided the church with opportunities to live-stream the services, Jimmie and
John watched every week. They even sang off-key with the songs and managed to serve themselves communion. Oh and how she loved getting to church on Sunday mornings at the crack of dawn to prepare the offerings for communion. She somehow always seemed to find opportunities to supervise operations and other people regardless of the country, the project, well just about everything. Jimmie and her mom, Winnie Rowland taught Sunday school to 2nd graders. They were the perfect pair to teach Sunday school. We can imagine that Jimmie went into class each week with her yellow, legal note pad, with bullet points, and doodling on the side to make sure the lesson was delivered perfectly. Winnie on the other hand would have been bustling around to help interpret the lesson and provide hands-on activities. They were the yin and yang of Sunday school.
Jimmie was also committed to find ways to show her and Saint Francis’s commitment to and appreciation of everyone who worked there. On the various staff appreciation days, she would make sure that she was there in-person to greet and serve staff on all three shifts, even when that meant that she would be there at 1:00am, and then back again at 7:00am, and all throughout the day.
Jimmie was very loyal and devoted to her friends, which led to life-long friendships. She maintained friendships from grade school, high school, nursing school, church, Saint Francis, and we are sure we are missing some. She loved walking with her neighbors, going out to eat after church, attending every high school reunion, going to all of her extended family’s events, going to lunch, going to work parties…I think the Painted Pony was a favorite as she searched for Western clothes here in Tulsa and then expanded her search to Ohio. Thank goodness for the Quarter Horse Congress that was held each year in Columbus, as the pickings were pretty slim for western wear in Columbus. Jimmie’s work friends were also like family, especially the ones who became like second moms to Scottye. No matter what was going on in anyone’s life, when there was a funeral, shower, wedding, arrival of a baby, the work crew would make sure that there would be a smorgasbord of food, loving support, and would help with whatever was needed.
John and Jimmie traveled the world going to England, France (for six hours), Spain, Ireland, Australia, Acapulco and Cabo in Mexico, Canada, and Hawaii in addition to mission trips to
Ukraine and Belize. Jimmie believed that traveling to other places would create opportunities that would expose all of us to different cultures and experiences. One of Jimmie’s favorite experiences was dragging John (well John did all of the driving) along on cross country trips with her parents, James and Winnie. They had high class tastes, where Denny’s was the preferred cuisine, and motels with paper floormats in the bathroom cost extra. Motel 6 was a little too high class because leaving the lights on likely cost more that would be passed along to the customer.
They even bought a Hilton timeshare (so embarrassing) so that she and John could travel with Scottye and her family. She rode horses, went in ATV’s, swam with dolphins, ....
Unfortunately we knew that her Alzheimer’s symptoms were getting worse and that she wouldn’t be able to travel any longer. In July 2021 we decided to give it one last hurrah and traveled to Oahu. We stayed a week in Waikiki in our Hilton timeshare (don’t laugh) and a week on the North Shore. We went to the beach, rode ATV’s where Jurassic Park was filmed, visited Pearl Harbor, ate shrimp that were just caught that morning, and did whatever else we could find to do. We had an amazing time and created memories that will last a lifetime.
In August, 2021, John and Jimmie moved from their house in Broken Arrow where they lived for 46 years to Galena, Ohio so they could be close to their favorite daughter…okay, they wanted to be close to their grandkids. The number of books, her old lectures from teaching at Tulsa University, her nursing books from when she was in undergraduate, her notes from those classes, clothes from the 1970’s and 80’s (a blue terry-cloth swimming cover up Famolare shoes and Gloria Vanderbilt bell bottoms), way too many shoes from Brighton, and work clothes that she wore before she retired were quite the feat to organize and donate. It took a little longer to move into their house than they anticipated when they signed the contract, but eventually they moved into their brand new home the week before Thanksgiving. John was adamant that she stay home as long as possible as he knew that she didn’t want to be placed in a nursing home. Jimmie was able to stay at home up until the last week. Jimmie qualified for hospice
services and John could have Jimmie stay for five days at Kobacker House, once a month to provide him with respite. Taking care of someone with Alzheimer’s is a full time job and he did so, without complaining (too much except when bodily fluids were involved); respite provided him with the rest that he needed. Jimmie went to Kobacker house on April 1st and as scheduled to come home on Wednesday, April 6thth, however she spiked a fever and was unable to come back home. Kobacker provided her with the absolute best care possible and gave John, Scottye, and her grandkids the level of support they needed as she transitioned through the stages of dying. On April 14th, 2022, with John, Scottye, and Jared by her side, Jimmie decided that her work on this earth was finished, and knew that her lifelong supervision of all of us had prepared us to carry on her legacy of love and service. We are comforted by the fact that she provided us with so much comedic material based on her idiosyncrasies and personality, that we have plenty of memories and stories to tell so that others will know who she was and the incredible impact she made in the world. We are going to miss her and we think e.e. cummings poem captures how we will carry on
Webcasting is available at the following link for those that cannot attend the service in person: https://webcast.funeralvue.com/events/viewer/72567/hash:F9C6827C4CA9AFED
What’s your fondest memory of Jimmie?
What’s a lesson you learned from Jimmie?
Share a story where Jimmie's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Jimmie you’ll never forget.
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