Cynthia Ann Garlock

Cynthia Ann Garlock, age 75, passed away peacefully in her sleep after a brief illness on October 11, 2022.

Service: 1:15 pm; Friday, November 18, 2022, at the Dallas – Fort Worth National Cemetery.

Memorials: The family is asking in lieu of flowers please donate to the Wreaths Across America in honor of Cynthia Garlock, at: http://wreathsacrossamerica.org/.

Cynthia was born June 19, 1947, in Decatur, Illinois to William R. Smith and Shirley Hussey Smith. Shirley passed away in the summer of 1951 due to complications associated with Polio. After Shirley’s passing, Cynthia’s father married Lois Smith in November 1952. Cynthia graduated from Burgess High School, in El Paso, Texas in 1965. After high school, Cynthia loaded up her car and headed north to attend nursing school at St Paul Ramsey Hospital in Minnesota. After graduating from nursing school, Cynthia joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corp.

Cynthia’s first deployment was Japan where she worked in the ICU as a Second Lieutenant caring for the injured soldiers coming out of Vietnam. While stationed in Japan, Cynthia took up flying lessons with a fellow Army nurse. Ever the adventurer, during her return flight from one of the smaller islands she flew into dense fog making visibility difficult. Not trained in severe weather conditions, Cynthia was unable to find her way home. She would increase her altitude in her Cessna to stay above the fog and to make sure the mountains remained on the right side of the plane in hopes that the fog would clear to allow her to land safely. Fearing she would run out of gas, Cynthia notified the air traffic controller who then issued a state of emergency and grounded all flights until she landed safely.

After leaving Japan, Cynthia was then stationed in Fort Simmons Colorado where she transferred to West Point as the Head Nurse of ICU/Post operative recovery. During her time at West Point, she had the opportunity to have her younger brothers, Melvin and Barney Smith, out for a visit. Cynthia kept their schedule busy and included a camping trip during their time together. Cynthia’s most memorable experience during that time was coming back to their tent to find Barney and Melvin in a full out brawl in the pouring down rain. Cynthia would laugh when talking about loading the “boys” into the back of her Triumph Spitfire and taking them back to West Point.

From West Point, Cynthia was stationed in Fort Sam Houston where she taught the 91B Combat Army Medic course before transferring to Hawaii. In Hawaii, Cynthia was the Head Clinical Nurse for the OB/GYN unit at Tripler Army Medical Center. While in Hawaii, Cynthia was working on her Bachelor of Hospital Administration. While enrolled in a Men’s Religion course, she met her future husband George E. Garlock. George would bring coffee to class for Cynthia as she would usually be coming off a work shift and would spend most of the class asleep. George knew Cynthia was the one when she mistook a streetlight as the moon on one of their nightly walks. Cynthia didn’t realize that the things flying around the streetlight were moths and not shooting stars. Cynthia and George were married on October 7, 1977 in Honolulu. In February 1979, they welcomed into the world their first daughter Angela. Their Hono-Ru-Ru baby.

Cynthia was then stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia where she worked as the head nurse of the Army Health Clinic. In May 1980, they welcomed into the world their second daughter, Tamara. Their own Georgia Peach. The family of four then transferred to Fort Eustis, Virginia before ultimately retiring in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. During her time in Fort Leonard Wood, Cynthia was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

Cynthia retired from the United States Army after serving 20 years. Once retired, Cynthia worked as a Director of Nursing in various nursing facilities, tried her time as a Home Health care nurse battling the Mapsco book for directions while driving (if you knew her as a driver, it was scary without distractions), to a Quality Assessment nurse and ultimately retired after working as a Home Health Administrator.

Through her marriage to George, Cynthia was blessed to be called Mom by Barbara Butterfield and Debra Lawrence and found a special place in their lives.

In her later years, Cynthia traveled to Utah frequently to spend time with the Butterfields who loved her dearly. Grandma Cindy was absolutely adored by her grandchildren, great grandchildren and especially by Jon. Her visits were filled with drives through the Wasatch mountains in every season, good food, warm laughs and lots of love. She showed her Utah family constant love and support and visited to attend basketball games, football games, college graduations, weddings and Halloween parties in full costume. Her presence brought warmth and love. Her beautiful smile and unique sense of fashion was adorable.

The year before George passed, George and Cindy went on a Caribbean cruise with the Butterfields. Although George’s health prevented him from participating in excursions, Cindy took a different approach. Despite her physical limitations, Grandma Cindy was fearless and her mind always wanted to write checks that her body couldn’t cash. Still, she refused to be left out of any of the fun. Although her excitement to swim with dolphins in Grand Cayman resulted in a severe, in-water panic attack and a near drowning experience for Jon who came to her rescue. She recovered quickly but wisely decided she shouldn’t go horseback riding in the ocean in Jamaica.

On a recent visit to Nevada to visit Debra and John Lawrence, Cindy was introduced to the world of off-roading. John loaded her walker into the back of his Polaris Razor and they took off down the mountain road with Cindy behind the wheel. Her face beamed when she spoke about this experience.

Cynthia loved to support her grandkids in all their sporting events, from baseball, softball, football, volleyball and color guard, she was always eager to go to them all and her calendar reflected the many activities her grandkids were in. She was known as their number one supporter and for the last two years she was easily seen as the “cool grandma with the purple hair”.

To have known Cynthia was an honor and a privilege. Her purple hair, beautiful smile and spunk were contagious. She was warm, genuine, and generous. To know her was to love her.

Survivors: Cynthia is survived by daughter, Angela Lowe and husband, Kevin, of Saginaw, Texas; daughter, Tamara Alexander and husband, David, of Fort Worth, Texas; daughter, Barbara Butterfield and husband Jon, of South Jordan, Utah; daughter, Debra Lawrence and husband, John, of Carson City, Nevada; grandchildren, Hailey Lowe, Kasey Lowe, Taylor Alexander, Tyler Alexander, Ashley and Jordan Roberts, Alex and Natalie Butterfield, Brinley and Brecken Mills, Cole Butterfield and Matthew Lawrence; great-grandchildren, Sarin, Nora and Nixon Roberts.

Preceded in death by her husband, George E. Garlock; parents, William and Shirley Smith; mother, Lois Smith.