DEBRA KAY PRENTICE WILLIAMS
Debra Kay Prentice Williams passed from this earth at the age of 64 on July 13, 2025.
Debra was born on Oct. 26, 1960, to Bill and Alice (Shuemake) Prentice in Littlefield, Texas. Debra always had the pleasure of telling people that her dad played guitar with Waylon Jennings, Waylon would hold her and Waylon lived next door from them. Debra came to Childress in 1968 as the family moved to Childress, Texas from Littlefield.
When Debra was in fifth grade, she entered a spelling bee contest that was from ages elementary to high school, and Debra won second place out of everyone there. Debra was a freshman in high school when she met the love of her life, Cody. Cody lived in Memphis, Texas, 30 miles away. Cody would come to Childress on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to see her. They would attend church on Sunday morning and evening at Kirkland Baptist Church.
When Debra was a junior and Cody was a senior, he asked Debra to marry him on her birthday. They got married on Dec. 2,1977. She and Cody lived in Memphis a few months, then Cody’s job moved them to Tulia, Texas. That’s when Debra decided further her education, got her GED and decided she wanted to take college classes at Clarendon Junior College and Amarillo College. She and Cody lived in Tulia for four years and then moved to Kirkland, Texas. She and Cody were married for eight years before she had her first bundle of joy, Dedra Kay, then, two years later, another bundle of joy, Kara Sheree, then four years later, another happy moment was Colby Charles. Debra and Cody welcomed in another daughter, Kara’s best friend, Keshia, in 1997 Debra was a jokester. She was always playing a joke on someone, just like her dad. She did have a good heart; it would be soft heart sometimes, but you could always tell what’s on her mind, because she would often tell you. Don’t ask her for her opinion; she would tell you exactly what she thought, even if it was not what you wanted to hear. She didn’t sugar coat anything.
Debra was very competitive in any game she played in — card games, like Uno or Skip Bo, the board game Wayoo and softball and volleyball, which she played in leagues. You could often find her helping Cody in the fields, helping him move the farm equipment from field to field.
Debra worked in many different fields in her years. She worked in home health in her younger years. She also helped Cody farm and retired from the City of Childress in 2020.
Debra loved to cook, and she was a great cook, which she got from her mama, and would get requests by everyone to make chocolate pies, homemade ice cream, pinwheels, fried chicken and potatoes, fried or mashed.
Debra was proceeded in death by her parents, Bill and Alice (Shuemake) Prentice, of Childress.
Debra is survived by her husband, Cody, of 47 years; their four children, Dedra Rhodes and husband James, of Shallowater, Texas, Kara Perez and husband Jessie, of Childress, Colby Williams and wife Kaylan, of Lubbock, Texas, Keshia Pennon and fiancé Jonathan, of Fort Worth, Texas; 10 grandkids, Kaylie and Kambrie Perez, Tucker, Bowen, Winslet and Graham Williams, Anaiyah, Aiyanah, Ainycah and Aiynsleigh Maxwell; brothers Billy Prentice and wife Sandy, of Villa Ridge, Mo., Bobby Allen Prentice and wife Irma, of Childress, Jackie Prentice and wife Karen, of Childress; and sister Brenda Overstreet and husband Kevin, of Childress. Also surviving are several nieces, nephews, aunts, cousins, great-nieces and great-nephews.
Visitation took place from 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, July 16, 2025, at Johnson Funeral Home in Childress. Funeral services were held at 10 a.m. Thursday, July 17, 2025, at Parkview Baptist Church in Childress. Burial followed at Childress Cemetery.
