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Michelle Louise "Shelly" Slovak
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Home > People > S >
Michelle Louise "Shelly" Slovak
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1978 The Roar
R. L. Turner High School
Carrollton, Dallas Co., Texas
Senior Class |
OBITUARY
 Michelle Louise
"Shelly" Slovak
August 7, 1959 ~ July 17, 2026 (age 66)
Michelle Louise “Shelly” Slovak, of Stephenville and Farmers Branch,
Texas, passed away on July 17, 2026, with her family by her side. Born
August 7, 1959, in Dallas to Louis Joe Slovak and Patricia Ann (Adams)
Slovak, Michelle lived a life defined by fierce love, perseverance,
humor, and an unwavering devotion to family.
As a girl, Michelle treasured fishing, hunting, and special outings
with her daddy and Papaw. She loved family gatherings, visits with
relatives in Texas and California, and Jurick family reunions at Sokol
Hall in Ennis. After losing her mother when she was only twelve, she
drew even closer to her extended family. Around that same time, soccer
became one of the great passions of her life. She was proud to be a
founding member of the women’s soccer program at R. L. Turner High
School and dreamed of playing professionally.
Michelle later made her home in Stephenville, where she raised her
children and built friendships that lasted a lifetime. She was the kind
of mother who filled childhood with activity and adventure. She coached
soccer, cheered from the sidelines with unmistakable enthusiasm, took
the family camping at Lake Whitney, planned trips to Port Aransas and
Disney World, and drove across Texas so her children would know the
relatives and traditions that mattered so deeply to her. She was proud
of her Czechoslovakian and Adams heritage and made certain those family
connections continued into the next generation.
Her grandchildren knew her as MawMaw. She loved them wholeheartedly and
gave each one the attention, encouragement, and steady presence they
needed. She celebrated their accomplishments, worried over their
struggles, shared football, hockey, and Rangers games, and remained
involved in the details of their lives. Becoming a great-grandmother
brought her tremendous joy. Her great-grandson Asher knew the way to
MawMaw’s house before he was three and asked for her whenever he got
into the car.
Michelle’s life also required extraordinary courage. She stood beside
her daughters Michelle Dawn and Patricia Louise through childhood
cancer, supported her granddaughter Mia during her own cancer
treatment, and encouraged her son Joseph as he began treatment for
glioblastoma. She endured the deaths of her parents, sisters, and two
daughters while continuing to care for the people around her. When she
was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer in 2025, she underwent
treatment and beat it. After a pancreatic cancer diagnosis in January
2026, she again met treatment with determination and hope.
For sixteen years, Michelle worked at Subway, eventually becoming a
store manager. She took pride in her work and valued her coworkers,
employees, customers, and her boss and friend, Clarissa Kopchack. Her
warmth and humor turned many customers and colleagues into friends, and
she remained employed there until her final illness.
Michelle was preceded in death by her parents, Louis Joe Slovak and
Patricia Ann Slovak; sisters, Deborah Ann Burke and Brenda Joyce
Slovak; and daughters, Michelle Dawn Lawson and Patricia Louise Lawson.
She is survived by her stepmother, Betty Slovak; sister-in-law, Beki
Picus; daughter Cory Lynn McCray and husband David; son Joseph Lawson
and partner Cheyenne White; grandchildren Adam Lawson and wife Kassle
Pack, Nicholas McCray and partner Victoria Harris, Patricia Hannah
McCray, and Mia McCray and significant other Caleb Fields;
great-grandchildren Asher Gray McCray, Zyrus Pack-Lawson, and TJ
Pack-Lawson; aunt Geraldine Slovak; uncles Robert Adams and Thomas
O’Brien; cousins Kim, Kelly, Daryl, Brandon, Karen, Jimmy, Katie,
Ranae, Roby, and Vickie; and many friends whose lives were made richer
by knowing her.
Michelle’s family extends its heartfelt gratitude to the Stephenville
community and to the relatives, friends, neighbors, churches, medical
teams, and others who supported them throughout the many years of
treatments and travel. Your prayers, generosity, meals, assistance,
encouragement, and willingness to step in when the family needed help
made some of their hardest seasons more bearable. Those acts of
kindness were never forgotten and will always remain part of Michelle’s
story.
Michelle fought long and hard for the people she loved and for the life
she wanted to keep sharing with them. Her family takes comfort in
knowing that she is now at peace and reunited with her daughters,
sisters, and parents. She will be remembered in every family gathering,
every soccer game loudly cheered, every camping trip, every shared
joke, and every act of determined love.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in support
of her son Joseph’s fight against glioblastoma:
www.gofundme.com/f/help-joseph-fight-the-emperor-of-all-cancers
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East Memorial
Cemetery, Stephenville, Erath County, Texas
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Notes:
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Carrollton-Farmers Branch
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