Jennifer Wynne (Holden) Strackbein, 69, went to glory on June 21, 2026. Born in Corpus Christi, Texas, to Dewey and Dorothy Holden on November 5, 1956, she was the youngest of three siblings.

Just before Jenny’s birth, her father, Dewey, purchased ten acres outside Aransas Pass. The land bordered a neighboring ten-acre tract where his brother Wayne and wife Sammye had recently settled. Having moved from Corpus Christi to the country, Dewey was still building his family’s new home with a hammer and a hand saw when his youngest daughter, Jenny, entered the world.

Growing up in “Holdenville” was a delight for Jenny. She treasured the close-knit family life she enjoyed there and the freedom to roam their acreage from an early age. The culture of love, hospitality, and mutual support she experienced as a child would later shape the home she built for her own family.

Jenny came to Christ at age 15 when an out-of-town Lay Witness Mission group shared the Gospel at an MYF meeting hosted by the Aransas Pass Methodist Church. Jenny often told of the Holy Spirit’s power in her conversion. As she submitted her heart to Christ, she felt washed clean of her sins.

At 18, Jenny married her high school sweetheart, Roger Strackbein, on March 15, 1975. Two months shy of graduating, she finished high school as a newlywed — a source of humor after all these years, as her husband once wrote her a “permission slip” for being absent from class.

With financial help from their parents, Roger and Jenny purchased five acres adjoining the recently acquired properties of her brother, Gary, and sister, Jackie. The original “Holdenville” thus expanded from 20 to 35 acres. It was a blessed season, as the extended family lived close enough to help one another when needs arose. If one water well failed, for example, another could supply water through a network of connected pipes spanning the property. The Holden kin also enjoyed walking to each other’s homes without needing to step onto a paved road.

By their third anniversary, Jenny and Roger had welcomed two children: Wesley and Sherena. Living in a mobile home and saddled with mounting credit card bills, they were convicted by Scripture to make a radical change. They sold their Sears riding lawn mower, nice living room furniture, and Jenny’s prized Chrysler Cordoba to get out of debt.

Once in the black, Roger and Jenny sold their mobile home and used a modest nest egg to begin building a six-bedroom home from the ground up. Through many ups and downs — with Roger in and out of jobs during the oil-field slump of the 1980s — they persevered, finally laying the last piece of baseboard trim eleven years later.

During this time, Jenny and her husband’s convictions deepened in other areas: they committed to giving their children a biblical education (Joshua 1:8) and enrolled them in a private Christian school. When they could no longer afford the tuition fees, they turned to homeschooling (then rare and deemed illegal), which they stuck to till their youngest child graduated in 2011.

They also embraced the blessing of more children (Psalm 127:3-5), welcoming five more daughters to their family: Melody, Jenna, Shanna, Emily, and Elisabeth.

As the mother of seven, Jenny took on the rewarding challenges of the Proverbs 31 homemaker: changing thousands of dirty diapers, preparing countless meals, and getting clothes for her growing brood (often sewing them). And whenever she had time, she loved to work outside, earning the affectionate title, “Joan of Yard.”

1994 proved to be a pivotal year for Jenny and Roger. Hoping to raise their children on more land, they placed earnest money on 200 acres in East Texas and listed their home and five acres in Holdenville for sale. Though no buyers emerged at first, a family (outside the Holdens) who lived on a five-acre tract next door to Jenny’s parents expressed interest in purchasing the home she and Roger had built.

In God’s providence, the two families swapped properties, allowing Jenny and Roger to remain near both sets of parents. Setting aside their dream of a larger homestead, Jenny devoted herself to serving not only her children, but her aging family. She tirelessly cared for her mother till her passing in 2001, welcomed and assisted her husband’s parents after they moved onto the property in 2006, and later helped care for her own father until his death in 2023.

2007 was another defining year for Jenny. While traveling to Wisconsin to visit her married daughter, Sherena, the family’s van and U-Haul trailer were struck by a drunk driver on I-35 in Des Moines, Iowa. Traveling at highway speed, the impact ejected Jenny and two of her daughters onto the interstate. All three suffered severe road rash and lingering scars, while Jenny sustained a head injury that required more than a year to heal.

Yet rather than focus on her wounds, Jenny gave a bold testimony to the miracle of God rescuing their lives. In an interview from her hospital bed, she spoke openly of His amazing grace through this frightening accident, which — in normal, human terms — they should not have survived. This nationally syndicated broadcast touched many hearts, leading some who saw it to profess faith in Christ and others to renew their commitment to follow Him.

Jenny instilled in her children an excitement for learning, often saying, “You’re never too old to learn new things.” Well into her thirties, she took up the violin, inspiring her daughters to learn new instruments as well, including the cello, violin, viola, and flute. For decades, she sought to deepen her understanding of God’s Word by studying her Bible and listening to messages from such teachers as John MacArthur, Chuck Swindoll, and R.J. Rushdoony.

Next to her devotion to God, Jenny’s highest priority was her family. The heartbeat of her daily life was caring for them — not only in ordinary moments, but especially in times of great need. She drove through the night when they were hospitalized and willingly sacrificed personal comforts (even postponing dental work) to help them financially. She wept when they were in danger and pleaded with God for their relief. And when God prospered them, her joy overflowed — especially with the arrival of each new child and grandchild.

During her 4-year battle with cancer, Jenny was inspired to think of others. Each time she made the trip to MD Anderson for treatment, she insisted on stopping at the Goodwill in Sugarland, Texas, to look for clothes for the latest baby or toddler. She not only showered gifts on her offspring in greater Holdenville, but sent package after package to her grandkids in Wisconsin and Virginia.

Strong in heart and conviction, Jenny strove to do whatever God’s Word said — even when it was uncomfortable and difficult. She called her children to that same faithfulness and, more importantly, demonstrated it by her example.

Yet even as she held firm convictions, Jenny showed heartfelt compassion to the downtrodden who were often overlooked or scorned by others. Knowing herself to be a sinner saved by grace, she freely encouraged those marred by sin to look to the same Savior who washed her clean at age fifteen.

A woman well acquainted with her own frailties — including the cancer that ended her earthly life — she now rests with the Savior she loved, healed at last.

Jenny is preceded in death by her parents, Dewey and Dorothy Holden.

 She is survived by her sister Jacqueline Cheaney, brother Gary Holden (Cherie); husband Roger Strackbein; seven children, Wesley Strackbein (Micah), Sherena Schloneger (Josh), Melody Bannister, Jenna Strackbein, Shanna Sample (Matthew), Emily Springer (Daniel), and Elisabeth Strackbein; grandchildren, Abigail and Noah Strackbein, Evelynn Davis (Jacob) and Jacqueline Schloneger, Genevieve, Janelle, Vivienne, and Peter Bannister, Arabella and Matthias Sample, Daniel, Eleonore, Fiona, and Edmund Springer; and great-grandchildren, Adam Davis, with another Davis great-grandchild on the way.

A public visitation will be hosted at Charlie Marshall Funeral Homes in Aransas Pass on Friday, June 26, 2026, from 4 to 8 p.m. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, June 27, 2026, at 10 a.m. at the funeral home, followed by a graveside service at Aransas Memorial Park.

Arrangements are entrusted to: Charlie Marshall Funeral Homes and Crematory, 2003 W. Wheeler Ave., Aransas Pass, Texas 78336.