Grace Louise "Tommy" Sessions (Eisenkramer)

Grace Louise “Tommy” Sessions

July 23, 1926 ~ April 30, 2015

Grace “Tommy” Sessions, 88, of Naturita, passed away at St. Mary’s Hospital on Thursday, April 30th, 2015. Tommy was born in Lake City, Colorado on July 23, 1926 to Joseph and Pearl (Davis) Eisenkramer.  Her grandfather nicknamed her “Tommy” because she was such a little tomboy.  The nickname stuck, even though she outgrew her tomboy status, and grew into an absolutely beautiful woman. She attended schools in Colorado, California and Arizona.  When she was 10, her mother married Patrick McKannon, and he adopted and raised her as his own.  He was a very successful placer miner, and taught Tommy how to pan gold with the best of them!  She married her high school sweetheart, Roy Stokes, in 1943. While he was in the Army and stationed in Japan, she lived with her mother Pearl and stepfather Patrick in a cabin along the San Miguel River (placer mining) just below the settlements of Pinon and Ute.  She would ride her horse six miles (round trip) every day to the mailbox, to retrieve her love letters from her soldier-husband.  When Roy returned from Japan, they moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where Tommy worked in a busy drug store for many years. She was so sweet and beautiful that the drug store owner and his wife would let her drive their shiny new Cadillac convertible all around the busy city, and she didn’t even have a driver’s license!  Both of her daughters, Patricia and Shelley were born in Phoenix.  They decided to move back to Colorado in 1961.  She and Roy divorced in 1965.  She married Lawrie Sessions in 1966. She worked as a bartender at the popular Al’s Café & Bar in Naturita for many years, where she was everyone’s favorite because of her quick wit and sweetness.  After she left the bartending scene, she decided to be Lawrie’s “rig hand” and helped him work a “wagon drill” up on Unaweep Divide (all 5 feet, 3 inches of her).  She was a very competitive bowler during those years, too, and she even did evening aerobics (she said to keep the blood flowing to the right places)! She was also a major contender in the local billiards tournaments, where she won way more than she lost!  In later years she was forced to be pretty much homebound at her home in Naturita.  When her daughter Patricia passed away in 2013, she had a rough time.  An illness last summer resulted in her moving in with her daughter Shelley in Montrose, which turned out to be such a blessing!  Over the past few months she was fortunate to get to spend time with her family for all of the holidays and everything in between.  Particularly her great-grandchildren!  One of her most cherished times was getting to see her great-grandson Brenden win his very first THREE Karate trophies!  She bragged about it to everyone! Baseball, Soccer, Basketball, dance recitals, Bingo, family BBQs, you name it, she went. She most recently went to Spin City with the great-grandkids, and spent the day watching them roller-skate and play games.  They were so proud of her!  She also watched endless hours of old Westerns with Randy, her T.V. buddy.  She will be so greatly missed by her family and friends.  She was preceded in death by her parents, her only sibling, Betty Joe (who died as an infant and is buried in Rico, CO), both of her husbands, and most recently her oldest daughter, Patricia.  She is survived by her daughter Shelley Kelly (Randy Trounce) of Montrose, Son-in-law Bill Stewart of Nucla; Grandsons  Roy (Janeice) Pfander of Greenriver, UT; Tommy Kelly of Grand Junction; Carl (April) Kelly of Montrose, and her nine cherished great-grandchildren: Skyler, Brenden, Angela, Cailyn, and Dally Kelly, and Hayden, Chance, Cord, and Callie Pfander.  Graveside services will be held on Wednesday, May 6th at 11am at the Paradox Cemetery, Paradox, CO, with assistance from Crippin Funeral Home.  Longtime family friend and Pastor Rick Luster will officiate.  Following the services, lunch will be served at the Naturita Town Park.  Memorial contributions may be made to the Naturita Town Park , Attention: Town Clerk,  P.O. Box 505, Naturita, CO 81422.  Crippin Funeral Home & Crematory, Montrose, Colorado is assisting the family.