Born May 19,1963 in Price, Utah to Clara Valate Brown and Edward Carol Maddox, Amanda Maddox passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on April 27, 2023 at home with her soulmate, Travis C. Raby and her beloved fur baby children, Loki, Floofy, Avila and G.G. at her side.

She was diagnosed with diabetes at age 14. She fought valiantly for years to overcome so many medical issues, including complications from diabetes, kidney disease and pancreas transplants, pulmonary circulation problems, medication allergies (allergic to everything but air) and nearly constant migraine headaches.

Amanda was the youngest of three children: sister, Corinne, brother, Michael, along with both parents preceding her in leaving this earthly world, and our precious fur babies crossing the rainbow bridge before her, favorite cat Topaz, pups, Chammy, Gypsy, Nike, Reebok, Cinders and Reinette.

Amanda was a student of Notre Dame Regional School, Judge Memorial High School and then graduated from Carbon High School (81) with high honors in business administration. She later attended the College of Eastern Utah, graduating with an associate of arts degree with high honors. She enjoyed singing with the college choir and of course the radio on any and all of the many road trips she and Travis went on.

One of Amanda’s favorite stories to tell was the first time Travis picked her up for a “real date.” Amanda had told her mom that she was going on a date and that Travis was going to be picking her up on his bike. Her mom instantly scoffed, “What kind of a guy are you going out with? He doesn’t even have a car?! Is he is picking you up on a ten speed?” The look on her little mom’s face when she answered Travis’s knock at the door, staring straight into his belt buckle, looking down at his boots and then kept looking up and up and up. Amanda came out ready to go in her leather jacket, jeans and boots looking amazing as always, with her mom in shock. “Oh my God my daughter is a Biker Chick,” she said. After Travis was grilled like a fish by this little old lady, they could not leave for the date until Travis changed the lightbulb over the basement stairs (much to Amanda’s embarrassment) for her mom that had been burned out for many years because she just could not reach it to change it out. This was one of many great memories made together.

She had a great love of fashion design and sewed many different fashion styles and patterns. Amanda loved and idolized the fashion clothing styles of her favorite Hollywood and TV actors, Audrey Hepburn and Fran Drescher of “The Nanny” TV series.

Amanda was part magpie with a great liking for anything brightly colored, sparkly or shinny. In the sparkle/shiny department, Amanda obtained certifications from both the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) and the International Gemological Institute (IGI), in grading, appraising and valuing precious gem stones, diamonds, emeralds, tourmalines, opals, rubies, sapphires and pearls, as well as many other rocks and minerals. That knowledge came from her brother-in-law John and sister Corinne and their experience from the many gem and rock shows. She knew the names both common and scientific as well as the healing and mystical powers of each and every one of them and how to use them all by heart. The Little Rock Shop in Helper was a special place she dearly loved. Any of the rock and mineral shows were always an adventure with her. She loved colored diamonds, preferring an imperfect-colored diamond to a perfect white diamond. Her all-time favorites were opals that were full of fire and flash in the stone. She was most proud of a 27-pound nephrite jade slick she found while on a rock hounding expedition in Wyoming. She got such joy from making, selling and modeling precious handmade gemstone jewelry for a mom-and-pop gem and jewelry company that she would meet up with at shows.

Amanda loved being a personal shopper at Nordstrom and usually turned back most of her earnings to the store because of her obsession for some of the latest boots, shoes and the latest fashion clothing; it was her retail therapy. Ultimately, this kept her bank account nearly empty due to this obsession.

Amanda had many jobs in her professional career, applying herself to many tasks. She worked in banking for many years as a loan officer and personal assistant. She also was a law clerk for local attorneys. As the best secretary ever, everything had to be perfectly filed and organized. She was most proud of being very proficient in shorthand, which is now a lost art.

She assisted Travis by maintaining paperwork and records for his business, Precision Firearm Repair, but most importantly, she could find some of the most needed and nearly impossible to locate obsolete repair parts not just anyone could find. She had a knack for finding the needle in the haystack parts, whether by phone calls, horse trading or online sales. For many years she managed her own small businesses, Treasures from the Dragons Den and Stardust LLC, which specialized in handmade high-end gem stones in the raw, to handmade custom wire wrapped and hand-tied jewelry, tarot card reading, custom design fashion items, even making small dog clothes, buying, selling and bartering at the many gem and jewelry, rock and mineral shows. Amada did all this until her failing health would no longer allow her to travel or even be able to stand and visit with friends and customers.

With many of her various interests, she volunteered many hours at the USU Prehistoric Museum and Nine Mile museum tours, leading to her favorite “Jurassic Park” series of movies, up to and including hunting for dinosaurs everywhere she went. She would always bring home pockets and sometimes buckets full of “cool” rocks.

Amanda was a double transplant recipient of a kidney from her niece, Diena, and a pancreas from the Hood family. She beat the average life expectancy of both transplants by many years.

Before she was taken ill, she loved to ride Travis’s BIG……..PURLPE……..HARLEY! She enjoyed watching people’s facial expressions as she said it that way, because most people’s minds were in the gutter. Their many bike trips included a special birthday ride to Estes Park, Colorado, Las Vegas, Nevada, by way of New Mexico and Arizona (being a rock hound we had to visit the Arizona meteor crater), Sturgis, South Dakota and the surrounding Black Hills. It’s the journey not the destination, always going the long way just to see the sights, which included traveling most of Route 66. Any of our trips to the Pacific Northwest, from Mt. St. Helens to the Pacific Ocean, and searching out many of the old light houses up and down the Pacific coast were a special treat for her. She loved riding anytime of the year because she never had to endure any weather while riding behind Travis; she always had her own personal weather shield. Bike trips were taken to many other places in the western United States.

Her pockets always contained dog cookies for any and all of the new furry friends she met along their travels, from chipmunks and squirrels to dogs, all the way to deer, elk and horses. She was a friend to all furry critters.

From learning about Grandpa Sam’s Hereford cattle operation, she got lessons on the Raby Hereford blood lines to what calf belongs to what mama. She was mortified and intrigued at the same time being 37-years-old and seeing a calf being born for the first time in her life. She had a major dilemma by loving her favorite breaded veal but not wanting to know which of the animals it came from. She received lessons on irrigation of crops, what type and when to plant them and how often to rotate them. Grandpa Sam tried to give her operating lessons on all the different farm equipment, from tractors, combine D-7 dozer, backhoe and road grader, to the four-wheeler just to go out and check the animals.

There were many more adventures with Travis from snowmobiling, river rafting the Green River to everything imaginable in the oil and gas fields. She traveled with Travis to many different locations around the nation. Sometimes it was frustrating when she would unpack the entire random colored assortment “gumball jar” of ear plugs just to retrieve her favorite colors of pink and purple. There were trips to Bodega Bay (very well-known seafood restaurant) where she ordered fried chicken due to her dislike of seafood, to the look on her face the first time she heard some of the CB radio traffic coming across the airwaves late at night while we were coming home through Wells Nevada. She even commented about one of the ladies of the night making a comment on the air. Amanda made the comment to me, “Can she really say that on the air?” And I replied, “Well, she just did.”

Amanda enjoyed target shooting with Travis and close friends. When she bought her first .22 pistol Travis asked her why that particular make and model?  Her reply in true Amanda form: “It had pretty writing on it.”  She loved her Kimber 1911 .45 ACP. She even tamed the massive 500 Smith & Wesson Magnum. Travis’s favorite was when someone complained about how vicious the 500 S&W Magnum was, he would show them the video of Amanda firing the beast. It was always great when she served up a good sized helping of humble pie with that video. Amanda was happy as long as she was with Travis, the love of her life. Many people did not know of her enjoyment of custom car shows (Magpie tendencies showing again. Bright and shiny), with her all-time favorite car being a 1933 Buick Victory coupe custom, lavender in color. She always wanted to have one built for herself (purple of course) and was most sad when her mom sold her favorite 1973 Buick Riviera Boattail.

With a cup of coffee in her hand she was a voracious reader. She was most happy with a great fantasy thriller book, a big cup of Beans and Brews Coffee in hand was her favorite drink of choice; she should have owned stock in their company. Every morning was a ritual of coffee and toast shared with her fur babies. As of late, most days she could always be found lounging around the house in her M&M pants and favorite “Miss Green” M&M socks. Amanda was a salt-o-holic, with Travis always saying, “She would put salt on her salt.” Everything was very well salted.

When asked, “Why her eyes were so dark brown?” She always replied, “It’s the CHOCOLATE!” She loved her dark chocolate the best.

Travis will have a full-time job caring for her “herd of dragons” and other mythical beasts. She also collected pens from everywhere, so if you are missing a pen, she probably knows something about it.

Amanda’s favorite color was purple, which included dying her hair for her upcoming 60th birthday. Thank you to Jalynn Martin for pulling that monumental task off with the utmost class. Amanda was so very happy with the amazing end results. She insisted that her nails look perfect all of the time. Getting compliments on them wherever she went.

Amanda is survived by the love of her life and soulmate of 25 years, Travis C. Raby; fur babies, Loki, Floofy, G.G, Avila and her cat Pixydust; brothers-in law, John D. Morrow, Bend, OR, Dolan Raby (Jessica and their children); mother-in law, Gail Raby (Mike Keener); Aunt Freida Tonge; cousin, Belinda Tonge of Denver, CO; and other nieces, nephews and cousins.

A gracious and heartfelt THANK YOU is given to Jacke Corbett, Brett Holeman, the U of U Transplant team, doctors, nurses and staff. Also, a grateful thank you to the adopted Hood family for their gift of life in the form of a pancreas from their son Anthony. A special thank you to Dr. Jared Clegg for going above and beyond in the care and treatment of Amanda and her special needs; she enjoyed her appointments with him as they laughed and joked with each other about anything and everything from toe socks to their same taste in 1980s music. Most importantly, thank you to Adam Callahan and his amazing staff of Eastern Utah Family Medicine for all the help and care they provided with the truckloads of necessary medicine Amanda needed. Thank You to Jamie and Carl Fox your care and support. I would like to offer a heartfelt thank you to Chris, Brady and the staff of Smith’s Pharmacy by helping Amanda with the quagmire of transplant medicines. A very special thank you to Patrick Fillingim and Mitchell Funeral Home for their amazing care and compassion in this difficult time.

Per Amanda’s wishes, she did not want a public funeral service. At a later date there will be a small private gathering to celebrate her life. This is not goodbye, but just until we will be together again. I love you more than I can possibly tell you Amanda.