Tracy Traweek, 39, died when a tornado struck her Pleasant Grove, Alabama, home on April 27, 2011.PLEASANT GROVE, Alabama --- Family meant the world to Tracy Traweek, but it was hard to catch her at home.
The busy 39-year-old Pleasant Grove woman was always carting her sons, Chace and Zach, around the Southeast with their travel soccer and baseball teams. Or taking her daughter Emily to cheerleading or to Tuscaloosa for tumbling lessons. "She was just always on the go," said Greg Traweek, her husband of 19 years. "She had a little VW Beetle she put about 300,000 miles on."
Tracy handled everything, from finances to making sure the kids' needs were met, Greg said. A colleague in the Jefferson County school system, where Tracy was an office assistant, described her as a dynamo with superior organization and computer skills.
She was close to her parents -- Mike and Sherrie Bigham -- and siblings, talking to her two sisters daily. She was a spitfire -- outgoing, vibrant, sassy and witty, her mom said.
Tracy loved to go camping and ride Jet Skis on the Black Warrior River. She broke her nose a few years ago, knee-boarding.
She was loving and well-loved, never paying attention to race or financial status, Greg said. More than 700 people came to her funeral after her house collapsed in the tornado.
Most of all, Tracy was devoted to her kids.
"Not only was she my mom," 14-year-old Emily said. "She was my best friend."
- Read Tracy Traweek's obituary