Sally Ann Tracey

Sally Ann Curd Tracey, age 77, died peacefully in her home on July 16th 2026 surrounded by loving family after a valiant 21-month battle with cancer.

Sally was born July 26, 1948 in Harrisonville, Missouri to James Harvey Curd and Else J. (Wissing) Curd.

Sally lived in Harrisonville, MO for all her life until leaving for college at the University of Missouri in Columbia in the fall of 1966. She graduated with honors in 1970 with a B.S. in Education with a double major of Elementary Education and Math. She later went back to school at Johnson County Community College to obtain her paralegal certificate.

In 1958 she went to Norway for four months along with her mother and siblings to tour parts of the country and to meet many of her mother’s relatives. It was the trip of a lifetime. They traveled by ship to get there and return, which added to the experience.

During the summer of 1969, Sally visited a friend in Lubbock, TX where she met her future husband, Tony Tracey. They were married in 1970 after spending only 3 weeks together during several visits over the course of a year. It was a time before cell phones and much of their communication was by letters and regular phone calls. They moved to his home in Lubbock. After living in one place for most of her life, she then moved frequently mostly for Tony’s job relocations: First to Roswell, NM; then to St. Peters, MO where their first child Kim was born; then to El Paso, TX; back to Roswell where their second daughter Tiffany was born; and then to Amarillo, TX before moving to Olathe in 1991 to be closer to family.

Sally always joked that she “didn’t know what she wanted to be when she grew up.” She taught school for two years: first 4th grade in Lubbock and then 8th grade math in a school in Roswell which closed at the end of the school year. She decided to try selling real estate instead of going to a third new school in as many years. She hated it and then worked in the bookkeeping department at ALCO Discount Store. She often changed jobs when they moved to a new state but was fortunate to be able to stay home for nearly a year when each daughter was born. After the move to Amarillo, she and Tony opened a print shop that they operated for twelve years before selling it and moving to Olathe in 1991 to be closer to family. During the time in Olathe, she worked for two different national title insurance companies as her first and last jobs in the area. Between the two she worked for a construction consulting firm and for a company (R&D) that prepared marketing materials for non-profits like The Salvation Army and Red Cross. She was promoted to the Forms Department manager at her first title insurance job and held that position until the company sold for the second time. It was while there that she went back to school at Johnson County Community College to secure her Paralegal Certificate. For most of the other jobs, her position was some sort of Administrative Assistant/Paralegal often with bookkeeping somewhat involved. At R&D, she worked closely with the IT department to create a new program and to work out the bugs in it. She loved that. Her final job was with Nations Holding Company where she stayed until she retired in 2019. There she worked on title claims, litigation, and the licensing and secretary of state filings for many companies operating across the United States. She loved most the people she worked with at each of the jobs. And she learned that she was happiest being a “great worker bee” than when she was supervising others.

She and Tony were married 44 years before he passed in 2015 and both loved spending time with family. In addition to family time, Sally enjoyed reading, working in the yard, and playing card or other games with family and friends. After retiring in 2019, she tried her hand at art (and she turned out to be very talented at painting), went to exercise classes at the gym and started volunteering at her church. She was a member of Church of the Harvest in Olathe.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Joseph Anthony (Tony) Tracey, a brother, James F. Curd, and her step-son, Joseph Anthony Tracey II. Survivors include two daughters: Kim Stokes (Dave), Olathe, KS; Tiffany Tracey, Wichita, KS; a sister, Peggy S. Gaede (Dan), Overland Park, KS; her niece, Caitlin Ripley (Brian), Riverside, MO; her stepson, Mark Tracey, seven grandchildren: Joseph A. Tracey III, Kristina Pike, Madison Decker, Maddie Kaine, Nevan Snider, Jack Tracey, and Aidan Kaine; and two great-grandchildren Gracelyn and Brantley Pike.

A visitation will be held on Saturday, July 25th from 9-10 am at Penwell-Gabel Funeral Home, Olathe, KS with a memorial service starting at 10:00 am.  Interment will take place following the memorial service at Oak Lawn Memorial Gardens, Olathe, KS.