Print Version
E-mail This StoryLong time Little Elm resident Rayleen Turnbow was known for her adventuresome and generous spirit whether she was acting as midwife to a mother in Brazil or selling a house to a family in Little Elm.
She succumbed to the cancer she had been fighting for more than a decade on Aug. 23 at Denton Regional Medical Center.
The Rev. Marc Farnell of CrossRidge Church in Little Elm told the story of what Turnbow did while on a recent mission trip to South America. In a small, mountain village she was the only one around when a mother went into labor. Turnbow acted as midwife for the mother and delivered the baby. The mother was so grateful she named her child after Rayleen.
One of Turnbow’s philosophies was, “Someone has to be in charge. It might as well be me.”
At Tuesday’s funeral, her nephew said his Aunt Rayleen took charge of family events and when she asked someone to do something, “there was a natural tendency to want to please her,” he said.
Rayleen started Turnbow Real Estate in Little Elm more than 30 years ago. For years it was the only real estate office in town. She built her business with the same take-charge attitude she did everything else. She also earned a reputation for exercising sharp business acumen and honesty.
Her son Charles said the most important thing people should remember about his mother is her trustworthiness. Hispanic and other communities trusted her to do her best for her clients.
“The family is continuing the business. We want people to know our doors are open,” Charles Turnbow said. “We want to maintain the same level of quality and service my mother did.”
He and the other agents who work for Turnbow Real Estate are getting together a new business plan and will take the business in the same direction Rayleen took it.
Rayleen was also one of the founders of the Little Elm Chamber of Commerce and served as president a few years ago.
She also served in the political arena while living in Oak Point in the late 1980s. She was elected to the City Council and also served as mayor pro tem on the Oak Point City Council.
Lifelong Little Elm resident Wes Morrow knew Turnbow for more than two decades. He has been a real estate agent for Turnbow Real Estate for five years.
“She had a business side, but she had a good sense of humor,” Morrow said. When she was taking her grandchildren somewhere she would ask Morrow if she could take his grandchildren as well. One year she bought school supplies for the daughter of an employee.
“She was very loving and generous,” he said.
“She was a tough nut on negotiations,” said her friend Ginger Schaefer.
She also remembers her friend as being very fun-loving. “She could say let’s go do this. She could be a quirky little thing, but we’d go do it,” Schaefer said
Turnbow will be remembered for her generosity and devotion to her family and church as well as
her work ethic.
“She was in their swinging for her people, and she loved her family,” Schaefer said.
