JoAnn “Jody” Williams Vick passed away peacefully on February 23, 2026, surrounded by her family, her hand held and her heart at peace as she went home to the Lord.

Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Roxie and Fred Williams, and sister to Dorothy Williams Prestwood, Jody’s life was marked early by intelligence, faith, and a deep sense of calling. She graduated from Central High School, earned her Bachelor of Science from Tennessee Tech, and completed advanced degrees in social work and psychology at Tulane University and Columbia University.

Her professional life was both groundbreaking and deeply personal. She began with the Tennessee Welfare Department and later continued her work in Dallas before joining Hope Cottage in adoption services. Invited to Houston, she became Chief Psychiatric Social Worker at the Texas Institute of Child Psychiatry alongside Dr. Irvin Kraft. In 1969, she supported families on Dr. Denton Cooley’s early heart transplant team, helping shape a deeper understanding of the psychological care surrounding transplant medicine. She later served as Associate Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at Baylor.

Jody eventually opened her private practice, where for more than 45 years she became a safe place for individuals, couples, and families navigating life’s most difficult seasons. With wisdom, faith, and compassion, she carried generations through grief, conflict, healing, and hope.

Her dedication to adoption remained a lifelong mission. Through Homes of St. Mark and later as co-founder and Director of Adoption at Caring Adoptions, she helped complete more than 100 families through both domestic and international placements. Because of her, children were chosen, cherished, and deeply loved. The ripple effect of that work will continue for generations.

She served as President of the Houston Group Psychotherapy Society, was a Fellow of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, published in medical journals and books, participated in the Women’s Health Initiative, and was a breast cancer survivor. In her final act of service and commitment to learning, she chose to donate her body to UT Health to support research on aging.

But to her daughter, she was simply Mom.

She loved without condition. She prayed without wavering. She welcomed friends as family and formed friendships that lasted a lifetime. Those who knew her longest knew her best and loved her deeply. She was strengthened by those bonds, and she returned that love fiercely.

She was an extraordinary mother, a devoted grandmother to her two beloved grandsons, and recently a joyful great-grandmother to one precious little boy. She shaped her family with strength, grace, humor, faith, and unwavering love.

We are heartbroken, but we rejoice knowing she is whole and restored in the presence of God.

Jody is survived by her daughter, Eden Vick & son-in-law Efren Gonzalez; her two grandsons, Efren and Esaias; her great-grandson Waylon; her nephew Merle (Tex) Prestwood and his granddaughter Madison; her long time companion Becky Logan and countless friends, colleagues, and the many families whose lives she forever changed.

If Jody touched your life, we invite you to share a memory or message for our family. Your stories mean more than you know. They are part of her legacy, and they will help us carry her light forward.

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