Nancy Ann (Powell) DeShan

Nancy Ann (Powell) DeShan

of McKinney, Texas, went home to Heaven on Saturday, November 22, 2025, in Allen, Texas. For the last time she traveled the familiar North Texas highways she had driven for decades of Bulldog homecomings and Thanksgiving journeys back home to Spur—only this time the road carried her straight into the arms of Jesus, her beloved Randy, her son Todd, and the joyful crowd of family and friends who had gone on ahead.

Nancy was born January 26, 1941, in Spur, Texas, to Archer and Virgie “Mc” Powell and grew up the daughter of gentle but hard-working cotton farmers and cattle ranchers. Long before cheerleading pom-poms, she could be found driving a tractor across the South Plains or wrestling irrigation pipe under a wide West Texas sky. She attended the small Dry Lake School until its closure, then graduated from Spur High School in 1958, where she was a spirited cheerleader. At Texas Tech she met the love of her life, Randy DeShan. Marriage and motherhood paused her studies for a time, but while the family lived in Oklahoma City she returned to college at Oklahoma Central State University; after moving back to Plano she finished her teaching degree Magna Cum Laude at North Texas State University (now UNT).

While living in Oklahoma City, Randy and Nancy poured themselves into Boy Scouts; Randy served as Cubmaster and Nancy as a devoted den mother. Their son Monte went on to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.

She taught school for a time in Plano before discovering an even greater gift for matching people with the perfect homes. For many years she was a successful and much-loved real estate broker and agent in Plano, in Seminole, Plantation, and Tampa, Florida, and later in the Dallas area. When Randy retired from Seagram’s, Nancy became his full partner in Ran-Nan, Inc., their chain of beer and wine stores—doing “anything and everything” with her trademark energy and grace.

In the late 1990s Randy and Nancy built their dream home on acreage outside McKinney—the place the family affectionately called “The Rusty Spur.” Two traditional barn-red barns stood stuffed with farm equipment and antique furniture. Out in the pastures ran horses, several hundred head of cattle, a herd of goats, one very serious guard donkey, and always a beautiful Collie (or two) keeping watch at Nancy’s side. The ranch became the gathering place for decades of holidays, cookouts, and grandchildren’s adventures. Inside the house, everything glowed in Nancy’s favorite cobalt blue, and solid oak tables—more than anyone else we knew—filled every room, each one a treasure she had hunted down and loved.

A lifelong lover of music, Nancy saw Elvis Presley perform twice—once so early in his career that excited girls begged her to sign photographs “Elvis” for them. Somewhere in the family albums there are still treasured pictures bearing the King’s name in Nancy’s teenage handwriting. Years later, the dance floor always belonged to Nancy and Randy; no one could country-waltz like they did.

Nancy was a devoted member of First Presbyterian Church of Allen, where she and Randy served and worshipped together for many years. Her deep Christian faith sustained her through every joy and every sorrow.

She is survived by her son Jay Brent DeShan and wife Tammy Porter DeShan of Cross Roads, Texas; her son Monte Lee DeShan (Eagle Scout) of Allen, Texas, who lovingly shared her room and cared for her daily during her final year, three cherished grandchildren who called her “NeNe”: Justin Randall DeShan of Wisconsin, Jeremy Porter DeShan of Illinois, and Jason Donald DeShan and wife Camille Contreras DeShan of California, her sisters Pat Powell Hightower and husband Cliff Hightower of Spur, Texas, and Jane Powell Bridge and husband Gary Bridge of Afton, Texas, brother-in-law Bill Brooks of Georgetown, Texas, seven nieces, three nephews, and a host of dear friends who were really just more family.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 58 years, Randall “Randy” Leroy DeShan (2019); son Todd Powell DeShan (2021); sister Dorothy Powell Wilson and husband Donald Lee Wilson; sister-in-law Theda DeShan Brooks; and her parents.

Nancy never met a child she couldn’t enchant or a story she couldn’t make bigger than life. Long after she and Randy retired from the stores, she became a part-time nanny, proudly calling herself the “child whisperer.” In her final years her friends at the retirement home affectionately dubbed her “Fancy Nancy” for the dozens of beautiful hats she loved to wear—each one making her smile even brighter.

Mom was an artist all her life. She studied art in school, and in her last years she returned to painting with a passion that nothing—not even illness or a hospital bed—could dim. Almost every day she created another small, perfect canvas: birds in flight, wildflowers, gentle farm animals. The canvases grew smaller as her strength faded, but her output never slowed—several beautiful paintings every week, each one signed with the same steady hand that once drove a tractor and waltzed across Texas dance floors. Her art was the final, quiet way she kept saying, “Look how beautiful the world is.”

A chapel service celebrating Nancy’s life will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, December 4, 2025, at 602 N. Burlington Avenue, Spur, Texas. Friends and family are warmly welcome. Nancy was always happy to be celebrated, but in lieu of flowers please consider a gift to the children’s charity of your choice—that is exactly what she would have done.

Mom, give Dad and Todd a hug for us. Save us all a dance.  

We love you forever.