Christine Marie Whitfill's Obituary
Christine Marie Whitfill, 65, of Plano TX died February 8, 2021 in Plano, TX. She was born on June 2, 1955 and adopted by James Browning and Myrtle Browning in Baltimore, MD. She married Joe Whitfill on May 3, 1986 in Dallas, TX.
She was a Travel Coordinator/Canadian Consulate for 7 years, Travel Agent/EDS for 10 years, and a Travel Agent/American Express for 10 plus years. She was a member of the American Quarter Horse Association.
She is survived by her spouse, John Whitfill (Plano,TX), Kim Tyler (Shreveport,La), and James N. Browning, Jr. (Lake Tahoe, NV).
Christy was the first of three adopted children. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, she grew up in Richardson, Texas, graduating from Richardson High School and then SMU with a major in French and a minor in Chinese. Her first major was dance, but she liked modern dance so little that she changed her major.
When she graduated from SMU, she flew with her Dad to New York City to apply for a job at the United Nations where she could apply her language skills, but she soon found out she didn’t like the big city at all and returned to Texas and a job at the Canadian Consulate in downtown Dallas where she took groups to Canada to promote Canadian tourism. It was on one of these trips where she learned to ski.
She lived with her parents after graduating from SMU and returned home one day with a bucket full of carrots to announce, “Guess what these are for?” They were for her first horse, Cinnamon, which she kept in a stable in Mesquite until a friend convinced her to move to a better stable in what is now Willow Bend. While she was at the first stable one Sunday, she decided to play doctor and put some eye drops in Cinnamon’s eyes. Two other boarders found her and rushed her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a broken nose, concussion, and broken arm. A steel plate and session with plastic surgery later, she was back on her horse. She was very disappointed that the injury kept her from attending the Calgary Stampede in Canada with a friend which was planned for the next day after her injury.
While she was out of commission, Christy decided to breed her mare, Pay was born, and that is where Joe entered the picture. When he met her at a friend’s wedding, it was love at first sight and they spent the next few months getting to know each other. Joe proposed on a ski trip to Banff, Canada, which is where he learned to ski. Christy also taught him to ride horses but not her love of showing. He entered one horse show, found it boring, and that was the end of his showing career.
Christy, however, entered both Cinnamon and Pay, and later Blues and Duncan in horse shows, qualifying for the AQHA World Show several times. Her brother, Jim, helped with the purchase of Duncan, and this horse remains the favorite of all the horses.
After the Canadian Consulate, she worked as a travel agent for EDS and American Express where she turned her love of cruises into a Cruise Specialist Certification. She and Joe traveled all through the Caribbean. She also went on trips with the travel agencies to Germany, Thailand, Ireland, and Bermuda.
From the travel agencies, she worked for her brother at Prove Up Legal Services. It was during this time that she began qualifying for the AQHA World Shows and traveled around the country to various horse shows before ending up at the World Show several times.
From Prove Up, she moved on to Women of Faith where she started in ticketing and moved on to Volunteer Coordinator where she arranged for the hundreds of volunteers needed for a Women of Faith Conference. Leaving there, she finished her working career at Joni and Friends as an admin before retiring in January of 2020. While working there, she also spent five years as a volunteer in the adult special needs Sunday School class at church before joining the church choir, also a passion of hers. Besides singing in the choir, she also volunteered to help prepare the music for the other choir members. She and Joe volunteered to work with the Awana youth at Stonebriar, a pursuit which was interrupted by the Covid pandemic.
After retiring, she chose to spend her time with Joe, Duncan, their dog, Meggie, various Bible studies, and volunteering at MainGait, a therapeutic horsemanship center.
In lieu of flowers, Christy would love for donations to be sent to MainGait or to Joni and Friends for family retreat in Christy’s name. Joni and Friends has set up a scholarship fund in her name for this as well.
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