Jana Scott

Jana Marie Scott was born on April 3, 1955. She went to her Heavenly home on June 15, 2022. She was the younger daughter of Dale Dayton Scott and Betty Tyler Scott.

I was a seven-year-old in a Mesquite tree when one of my grandmothers came out and told me I had a baby sister. That was the beginning of 67 years with my best friend. Jana was the cutest little baby! She had beautiful red hair and green eyes thanks to her daddy. Her baby soft complexion was like peaches and cream! As a toddler, she was full of energy and happy.  She would play a little toy-guitar and sing and dance. She was a hoot! She loved to entertain us.  Once, when Jana was at church camp, she wrote Mom and Dad a letter asking them to “sin” her some more money! I still laugh about that request.

Jana was kind and generous to family and friends. She became a caregiver for our mother and dad for many years. She cooked, cleaned, helped them to appointments, and did whatever they needed with love. She loved her pets especially her dog, Maggie. If any little four-legged creature was found or lost, she usually brought it home.

In 1971, at 16 years old, and after tennis practice, Jana tried to jump over a small concrete fence that circled part of the library at Cooper High School. Her feet caught, and she went front side down on concrete. She tore-up most of her abdomen. It was that accident that gave us the unknown and awful information that she only had one kidney. That was shocking enough until we were told it was a Cystic kidney. Her kidney was enclosed in a cyst. She was airlifted to SouthWest Medical Center in Dallas where a great doctor, Dr. Paul Peters, put her back together again! Dr. Peters asked permission from our Dad to use Jana’s file in a teaching seminar in New York City. We never forgot Dr. Peters and how he literally put her together again. She had several major surgeries and trips back to the hospital to recover from the accident and surgery during her senior year. What a blessing that we still had her with us!

She recovered. However, that event was part of her life that never went away. She lived with kidney disease for 51 years and had to make many changes throughout her life. She loved riding the two horses Dad bought her, but the doctors told Dad it could be very damaging to her kidney if she were thrown off.  That was one of the “things” she loved doing that she had to give up.

On February 2, 1996, Jana had another catastrophic event. She had a brain aneurism. She was working as an aide in a nursing home in Abilene when she fell to the floor with excruciating head pain. A nurse applied pressure to her neck and head and probably saved her at that moment. Jana was air-lifted to the Zale-Lipshy hospital in Dallas where she stayed 21 days. Dr. Duke Sampson, a very famous surgeon, saved her life. We never forgot Dr. Sampson. Because of him, we were able to keep
Jana a little longer. We thought, how can our Jana have another life-altering event? I never found out the answer to that, but Jana recovered with only short–term memory loss. We were blessed again to have her with us on this earth.

Jana was friendly and made friends easily. She was lucky to have several life-long friends. Her personality was happy and engaging. In junior high school, at Jefferson, she excelled in art. Jana’s art teacher was so impressed with one of her Batik prints she asked Jana if she could buy it! That tickled Jana to no end! She was very proud of that. At Cooper, Jana played tennis. Her coach and tennis friends checked on her often after the accident to see how she was recovering. Many of her teachers also checked on her and helped her with studies when she was out of school.

Recently, as Jana’s kidney disease progressed, we were once again so grateful to have wonderful doctors caring for her: Dr. T Harrop Miller, Jr., Dr. David J. Randell, Dr. Ibrihim Fakhoury,   Dr. Yogeshkumar Patel, Dr. Anwar Gerges, Dr. Antao Du, Dr. Heaven, and Dr. Canario. We were grateful for all the doctors who helped Jana through this last journey of trying to get well.

Also, we thank everyone on the 7 ^th floor of the ContinueCARE Hospital and Hendrick Hospice Care. The nurses and staff at both places were kind and loving. Jana could not have had better care.

June 15, 2022 became a very special day. Before Jana left us, we had an impromptu musical celebration. Dad and I were in Jana’s room. My step-daughter, Christie, brought her beautiful voice and guitar to play for Jana. Also, Dina, a very special nurse and friend, who works with Dr. Gerges, joined us. Dina checked on Jana by phone regularly. She told me she was going to be in our area of town and would stop in to visit Jana on Wednesday, so she was with us when we had our celebration. We didn’t know that would be our last time spent with Jana. Jana passed shortly after we all left. That celebration was planned by her Heavenly Father, but It still seems like 67 years was not long enough.

Jana is survived by her father, Dale Scott, and her sister Marianne Scott Collins. Cousin, Bob Tyler and wife, Lyn. Cousin, Linda Donahoo and husband, Nelson. Cousins: Sue Ann, Callie, Trayce, and Mark Scott. Jana had a sweet friendship with Christie and Vickie Collins and Sherri Collins Strom and her husband, Chris Strom.

Predeceasing Jana: Her mother, Betty; brother-in-law, James F. Collins. Other relatives: Cal T. and Billie Scott; Billy Dale Scott; R.D. (Dock) and Bettye Tyler; Dian and Wayne Willis; J.C. (Fritz) and Geraldine Tyler; Jimmy Tyler.

Visitation will be 2:00 PM, Tuesday, June 21, 2022, at Elmwood Funeral Home, 5750 Hwy 277 S followed by a funeral service at 3:00 PM in the Elmwood Chapel. The family would like to invite everyone to a reception following the service in the Elmwood Family Center.