Hollie Jo (Glick) Gehring, known to those who loved her as HJ or Newt, passed away on October 4, 2026, at a Houston hospital. She was 54.

She was born on June 18, 1972, in Plainville, Kansas, and carried a little of that small-town spirit with her everywhere she went. She graduated from Plainville High School with the Class of 1990, then headed off to Bethany College in Lindsborg, where she spent a year playing volleyball and softball on a volleyball scholarship. She always knew she wanted to be a nurse, and even though Bethany didn’t have a nursing program, she wasn’t about to miss out on the college experience before chasing her real dream.

And chase it she did, one step at a time. Hollie became an LPN, then earned her ADN, BSN, and finally a master’s degree, and became an emergency room nurse practitioner in 2008. Emergency medicine was her calling, and teaching it became her passion. She and a colleague built and ran an APP internship program at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, guiding new practitioners through classroom work and hands-on ER time until she felt they were truly ready. If the ER wasn’t the right fit, she helped them find where they belonged.

Her career took her from Plainville Rural Hospital to Texas, where she worked as an ER nurse at Medical City Lewisville from 1995 to 1998, Plano Medical Center from 1998 to 2009, then as an ER nurse practitioner at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas from 2009 to 2021, and finally at the VA North Texas Health Care from 2021 until she was hospitalized in 2025. Her heart for helping others reached beyond her job, too, taking her on medical mission trips to Guatemala.

Hollie had a strong personality, no doubt about it, but underneath it all was one of the most caring, giving people you could ever meet. She liked things neat and in their place, and she wanted to help any way she could. She loved to travel, cheered loud and proud for the Kansas City Chiefs, enjoyed a good concert, and never said no to the occasional casino trip.

Hollie married the love of her life, Bernie Gehring, on August 31, 1996. They were blessed with three daughters, Cheyenne, Sonni, and Tatum.

More than anything, Hollie’s family was the center of her world. She and her husband, Bernie, attended every game, meet, and lift, traveling wherever the girls played softball, volleyball, or powerlifting. When her grandson Cody came along, she became Gigi, a role she treasured with all her heart.

Hollie loved animals and fostered Pit Bulls.

Hollie is survived by her parents, Paula (Williams) Glick and Fred E. Glick; her brother, Bryce Glick; her husband, Bernie Gehring; her daughters, Cheyenne Price (Mick), Sonni Gehring, and Tatum Gehring; and grandson Cody Ray Price.

She was preceded in death by her grandparents, Paul and Mary Williams; Herb and Vera Jane Glick; and her mother-in-law, VI Gehring.

A member of the First Christian Church in Plainville, Hollie lived her faith through the kindness she showed and the care she gave.

A celebration of her life will be held at a later date in Wylie, Texas.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to PAC in Plainville, in care of Susan Stahl.

Hollie would want us all to remember this: enjoy every day, tell your family you love them, and don’t put things off, thinking you’ll have time later. We are not promised tomorrow.