Sandy (Ray) Aten

1948 -- 2026

Sandy entered this world on her way to heaven in 1948 in a little Nebraska town called David City and finished at Circle Of Life in Bentonville in 2026. A lot of people wonder what happened during the dash between the dates. Well, that is a story worth telling.

When she was a young girl, she was run over by the mail carrier in their town. Thus begins her journey. She was patched up and did well. Her and her cousin Denny Houska were entrepreneurs. She said they would get lost golf balls from the golf course close to their home and sell them back to the golfers. And they were into the “poultry recovery” business as their aunt had chickens. Occasionally some chickens would escape their confines (occasionally with help) and they would get paid a nickel a chicken for their return. She loved David City and from her telling it, she was loved by many of the school and community. Unfortunately, her senior year in high school, they had to move to Ainsworth, Nebraska.

She was fairly popular with all the folks accept the girls that owned the boys....she made the mistake going out with the quarterback and was not liked by the girls. However, she met some great girls and made it through school....safely.

She met her boys (Corey Marquis and Jason Marquis) father and he joined the military and her world adventures started. They were in Colorado, Texas, Europe and Turkey. She was liked by the officers wives and they wanted her to go with them, so she was able to travel with them to a lot of places in Europe. Italy was one of the locations she visited and enjoyed all of the country.

They returned to the US and was divorced a little later. She lived in Van Buren for several years working jobs to keep her and her sons taken care of. For fun one day, the staff where she was working had an officer friend come up to do a fake arrest... He said she was running an ambulance service without a license. She said, “What”! everyone laughed because the boys, being boys, broke some bones and such and had to take them to the doctors.

In 1991 New Years eve, she was at Country Land, (a country dance club) and asked her girl friend “Is there anybody here that can dance?” Her friend said “There’s Tex, and he’s heading for the door”. She came up to me and asked if my name Tex and I replied, “Yes ma’am”. She said, “Prove it”. I did and asked if I could dance and I replied “I get by.” For 34 years we have gotten by…we were married 6 months later (July 25th) and her not knowing it was my dad’s birthday also. She had asked me why we had it then and I said because it made him happy to see us happy.

In her defense of me being in the choir at church, she started doing Awana’s. There she met Ellen Hoofard in Awana’s also. She always laughed at saying she had me 3 months longer than Ellen (her BFF). During her teaching and ministering to the girls, she realize she was not a Christian and later gave her life to God.

She always enjoyed saying to me “Now you have yourself a good little Christian girl!” (which had been one of our discussions)

Since then, we have had many adventures. Going to the Outer Banks of the Carolinas, Omaha, Nebraska for Thanksgiving, Texas family visits. Her first time meeting some of our Texas kin, she was asked if she knew what color a baby Ostrich’s butt was…she said “no” (I think she was rethinking our marriage vows) and was told it was blue…after that, she fit right in.

She was the first Arkansas female electrician. She was very proud of that designation. She was liked in this field also. She came up with our company name with great ease…. A-10 Electric… She not only was good at doing electric work, she ran the company for a while when I worked for a company to get insurance on us.

Our adventures were not always fun. Shortly after I started for Anderson Electric and Plumbing that Sandy was diagnosed with cancer of the left tonsil and throat wall. She endured surgery and then came the radiation treatments of 30 minutes a day for 30 days. She smelled like a real bad sunburn and looked like it also. We got through that then I had heart trouble then knee trouble. We laughed at me being a “multi million dollar” man, not bionic. Fortunately she did not have anymore troubles until she developed epiglottis cancer. She had that removed and has continued to prove the doctors wrong. She proved she could eat and not have a feeding tube.

She has been through a lot and I had helped her through it all … with the exception of this one. This has been the doctors and God.

Sandy is survived by her husband Tex Aten of 34 years. Her son Corey (wife Trish) Marquis with 7 grand-children & 2 great-grand-children, her son Jason (wife Susie) Marquis with 2 grand-children and 2 great-grand-children, a daughter Angie (husband Cliff) Beal with 2 grand-daughters and 2 great-grandsons & 1 great-granddaughter. Another daughter Shawneika (husband Jason) Heffren with 2 grandsons.

And so now you know what has happened in the dash between the dates.

A Celebration Of Life will be held at First Baptist Church Rogers on Pleasant Grove Road. Visitation will be 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Wednesday October 21, 2026 with the Celebration starting right after.

There will be a “scattering” of ashes on November 3rd which is the 1st Tuesday in November around noon.