Judy Marie Mentink, loving wife and everyone’s mother, passed away the evening of January 6, 2024, at age 82. Judy was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming on August 1, 1941, to Carl “Gramps” Major Murphy and Lois Murphy and was the oldest of five children including Francis, Meribeth, Leslie, and Sheryl.
Judy met her husband Russ while she was a Senior at McClatchy High in Sacramento, California and attending advanced classes at Sac City College (where her grandson Jaxen will be playing baseball this fall—Go Panthers!). When she walked into class, Russ, a college student, positioned himself so that the only available seat was next to him and said, “Well, if it isn’t the lady in red with a price tag on her back,” as Judy was dressed in the school colors and selling ASB cards.
Russ drove her home in his blue MG and the rest was history.
Judy enrolled at UC Berkeley where she flunked out from playing bridge instead of studying; she went on to graduate from Chico State University in education, taught elementary school and remained a killer bridge player until the day she died.
Judy was not bound by convention. She did things no one else would do. Judy was a world traveler, from Soviet Russia to villages in Africa to voodoo ceremonies in Brazil. She packed up four boys in a small trailer and drove them around the country for a year as she thought that would serve them better than school (it did). Judy also said things no one else would say, truths that we need to hear, and was beloved for it.
She raised, not just her boys, Scott, Jarrett, Justin, Richard and Jovan, but the entire neighborhood; raised, fed, clothed and cared for everyone. There are scores of children that count Judy as a mother and dozens of adults that would call her their best friend. Judy gave and gave until there was nothing left to give.
Judy is survived by her husband, Russell Mentink; sons, Scott Mentink (Wynne), Jarrett Mentink (Angie), Justin Mentink (Rachelle), Richard Mentink (Tarnia) and Jovon Hollins (Dawn); and grandchildren Tristan, Chance, Jay, Jaxen, Taylor, Chase, Trey, Stephanie, Payton, Gia and Amaya.
A memorial will be held in Federal Way, Washington at the Twin Lakes Golf & Country Club on June 22 at 11 a.m. The family requests donations in lieu of flowers for those that would like to give in Judy’s memory—gifts to Federal Way Boys & Girls Club Ron Sandwith Teen Center would be especially appropriate.
