Tammy Jo Birk Jensen

Tammy Jensen of Scranton died early Tuesday morning, August 18, 2020, in Stormont-Vail Hospital in Topeka. She was 56.

Tammy Jo Birk, daughter of Marvin D. and Roberta A. Kyle Birk, was born Nov. 8, 1963, in St. Mary’s Hospital in Emporia. She married Craig Jensen on Aug. 16, 1986, in Lake Tahoe, Nev. He survives of the home.

She attended Emporia public schools and, after graduating from Emporia State University with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a minor in biology, she began working at Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation near Burlington in October of 1988 as a chemistry technician. In February of 1999, Tammy was promoted to Chemistry Supervisor. Never one to back down from a challenge and ever on a quest to learn something new, she completed a 40-hours-a-week, 13-month-long course in Senior Reactor Operator Certification at the request of WCNOC management in January of 2002, and became Supervisor Operations Support.  In April 2004, she returned to Chemistry as a Superintendent, then in April 2010, she became Manager of Chemistry. While serving as Chemistry Manager, Tammy was assigned to special projects. November of 2011, she received Manager of Operations Training Accreditation, then in July of 2013, she completed Manager of Accreditation Renewal of Technical Training. She retired in 2014 as manager of the chemistry department, where she spent many hours mentoring the young chemists as they came to work for her.

At Wolf Creek, she had been a member of the STARS team, served on numerous committees, and had been a member of the WCNOC Fire Brigade until several autoimmune diseases prevented her participation in strenuous activities.

Away from their jobs, the Jensens had worked and played as a team throughout their 34 years of marriage. They had a small Quarter Horse breeding operation on their farm a few miles north of Lyndon, and had participated in team penning, ranch sorting, and cutting horse contests until Tammy’s health forced her to stop.

She had received the Top Hand Award in 2004 from the Kansas State Penning Association. She and her team had won the state competition in 2002 and qualified for the Team Pen America nationals finals in Albuquerque; however, a broken arm prevented her from competing.

The couple played coed softball and volleyball in recreation leagues, collected sports and muscle cars, spent countless weekends boating, jet-skiing, and camping at Melvern Lake, and also enjoyed winter vacations in sunny locales. A beach in Jamaica was her happy place.

A former co-worker wrote that, while Tammy battled tough health issues, “her spirit and lust for life was always positive.” And he mentioned her competitive nature. He recalled that she and Craig played in company softball tournaments, and “that girl could play the game like no other and Craig was right there with her. I’m glad they were always on my team.”

The couple had been members of the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Posse and until recently had volunteered as cooks and servers at a weekly meal program for underprivileged children in Topeka. Helping others brought joy to Tammy’s heart.

With horseback competitions cut short by recurring severe health issues, Tammy took on a less-arduous activity: training Ziva, one of their German Shepherds, to be certified as a therapy dog. She and Ziva visited more than 100 nursing homes, hospitals, cancer care centers, and schools. Before Ziva’s untimely death in 2017, she also had earned 12 AKC titles for obedience, rally, scent work, and Canine Good Citizenship.

Tammy later began training the couple’s German Shepherd, Aztek, to do scent work and soon was joined in the competitions by her husband and Jentry, their other German Shepherd. Together they competed in several states and brought home a host of ribbons for their efforts. Aztek also received a total of 12 AKC titles scent work and Jentry received a total of 23 AKC titles, including scent, CGC, and trick dog.

Tammy was a fierce advocate for her family and friends, and the strongest supporter of people in her life. She enjoyed watching her Chiefs football, KU basketball, and Royals baseball, and relentlessly chided officials who made the wrong calls on the field.

The Jensens took their nephew, Tanner Bolen, on annual baseball stadium tours and managed to see games played in all 32 current MLB stadiums – usually featuring the Kansas City Royals or New York Yankees -- as well as games in the old Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium before they were torn down. Being the scientific planner that she was, Tammy always provided a lengthy itinerary in advance, to maximize potential outings to local attractions and several restaurants featured on “Diners, Drive-ins & Dives.”

The baseball tours brought education and enrichment opportunities for the youngster and for the adults. While in major U.S. cities, they visited zoos, aquariums, art and natural history museums, and historical sites; attended everything from NASCAR races to Broadway shows; went whale-watching on the northwest U.S. coastline; and went deep-sea fishing on the southeast coastline, among many more activities.

In addition to her husband Craig, Tammy is survived by her mother and stepfather, Roberta and Shannon Mlynar; brother, Andrew Birk, and sister, Trisha Birk, both of Emporia; stepbrother, Robert Mlynar of Kansas City, Mo.; stepsister, Courtney Lohmann of Overland Park; nephews, Tanner Bolen of Overland Park and Tyler Jensen of Council Grove; and step-nephews Jaxson and Caden Lohmann of Overland Park; niece, Jodi Jensen of Council Grove; father-in-law, Gary Jensen of Emporia; brother-in-law and sister-in-law Doug and Cindy Jensen of Council Grove; and her current four-footed kids, Jentry and Aztek, and her favorite horse, Taz, whom she always rode for sorting and penning events.

She was preceded in death by her father, Marvin D. Birk; mother-in-law, Jan Jensen; paternal grandparents, Harold and Irene Isch Birk, and maternal grandparents, Robert and Margaret Crumpacker Kyle; and four-footed kids Kirby, Tahoe, Echo, Aspen, and Ziva.

Cremation is planned with a private service to be held later. Memorial contributions to the Mayo Clinic for Autoimmune Research, for the Tammy Jensen Memorial, may be sent in care of Roberts-Blue-Barnett Funeral Home, PO Box 175, Emporia KS 66801, or may be made online at https://philanthropy.mayoclinic.org/donatemc , by phone at 1-855-852-8129, or by mail to Mayo Clinic Department of Development, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN 55905.