A smile and laugh to remember: Epperson’s legacy seen through local impact

Through her devotion to her staff and patients at Twelve Oaks Dental Clinic and her dedication to coordinating Spivey Hill Challenge since 2015, Dr. Jamie Epperson has made a community impact that will remain untarnished.

Epperson passed away Friday, July 14 in Wichita Falls after a long struggle with cancer.

She was born in Amarillo in November 1968 and graduated Salutatorian from Lamesa High School. She made the decision to become a dentist in high school after working for one in her hometown.

She graduated from West Texas State University in 1991 and began her studies at the University of Texas Health School of Dentistry in San Antonio. After graduating from dental school, Epperson is quoted in her obituary stating Graham was her first choice in where she wanted to practice dentistry.

“When I was younger, I and my family used to come to Possum Kingdom a lot – almost every summer, and I loved it. I have always thought that Graham was such a friendly, pretty town. And after being in San Antonio, I was ready to get out of the big city and come to a smaller community,” Epperson said.

In July 1995, she joined Dr. David Scott at Austin Road Dental Clinic in Graham. In 2007, she opened Twelve Oaks Dental Clinic.

Epperson’s dental practice has been operating in Graham for 28 years, and with the help of her staff and area dentists, her legacy will continue.

Twelve Oaks Dental Clinic Dental Hygienist Melinda Horn and Office Manager Rachel Shifflett said Epperson loved everyone at the office and built lasting relationships with staff and patients.

“We weren’t just employees, we were family,” Shifflett said.

“She was a great boss, but she was an even better friend. She treated everybody equally – patients, staff, people that would just come by, I mean, it didn’t matter,” Horn said. “If you knew Jamie, you knew her. That’s who she was. I mean (she was) the most genuine, honorable, loyal person you’ll ever meet.”

Staff and patients at Twelve Oaks Dental Clinic have and will continue to share the pain of her passing. Horn said through Epperson’s struggle with cancer the community has been praying for her recovery.

“We’ve had phone calls (and) we’ve cried in the chair with patients. Our patients are our family. We don’t see them as patients, we’ve established relationships. People have been coming here for years. We’ve seen the same patients and so they are family. So we’ve shed tears and we’ve... taken a break and then we’ve kept cleaning teeth and cried some more, but we’re going to keep going,” Horn said.

“We’ve had patients that have called and checked in through her whole illness wanting to see how she is and what they can do and pray for her and we’ve had patients come in that want to just pray with her in the chair. It’s not just been this week, it’s been this whole time,” Shifflett said.

The practice announced Epperson’s passing on its Facebook page and said that appointments will remain as scheduled as area dentists stepped in to fill in and make sure all patients had care.

“I think that speaks to who she was that they’re bending over backwards to do whatever they can to help us out because, like I said, she was just so loved,” Shifflett said. “It’s important to them that we continue her legacy at this office.”

Dr. Thomas Tate, one of the dentists filling in at Epperson's office, said he had some extra time available due to being semi-retired and was happy to step in at the office.

“I think everybody just respected her and the battle she was facing,” he said.

Another dentist who is stepping in for Twelve Oaks Dental Clinic, Dr. Barret Davidson, said Epperson was the reason he is a dentist today.

“Everything that she did plus who she was made me want to be just like her. She was a doctor, a small business owner (and) had a great standing in the community. …I deeply admired the way that she interacted with her patients and staff, and still she was able to be an incredible  mom and wife on top of that – that’s what inspired me most about her,” Davidson said. “When I first worked for her I could not have asked for a better role model and mentor. She will forever be one of the most influential people in my life, and I know countless other lives have been bettered by and through her.”

She was an active member of the American Student Dental Association, Texas Association of Women Dentists, Student Research Group, International Association of Dental Research and Xsi Psi Phi Fraternity, an international professional fraternity for dentistry.

She received the ADA Certificate of Merit for International Service for traveling to Guatemala as a part of a dental team providing dental care to the Quiche Indian population. Along with Guatemala, Epperson participated in dental mission trips in Haiti and Ecuador.

The Spivey Hill Challenge is a 5K run which takes place annually at Firemen’s Park in Graham. Over the last eight years, the race has raised $96,000 benefiting the Haitian orphanage Hands and Feet and later the local organizations of Garments of Grace and Shine On.

The idea for the run was born from Epperson’s experiences running 5Ks, half marathons and a marathon with friends. She wanted to make the running experience more meaningful and decided to bring Spivey Hill into a race.

Jody Dacus, who was one of the founding members of the run in Graham, said Epperson was someone who could talk someone into anything and got her involved. She said they would meet regularly to plan out the run each year.

“It started in the park and went up the hill and around in the subdivision and then back down. It ended up being right at three miles,” she said. “The timing, the clockwork, everything, because I was a stay-at-home mom, everybody else was working, so she and I actually would meet, try to get the things kind of together to make it feasible. Then we would meet once a month and pull things together as far as what everybody has found out.”

Dacus said that the organization always tried to reach a goal with the run and Epperson always challenged them each year to see if they could go higher.

“Everything is always about how she could serve, how she is going to give back to her community, how she can do something for others. Just the epitome of Jamie is she just always was very giving and very generous in everything that she did,” she said.

Donations for the Spivey Hill Challenge are being accepted in Jamie’s memory at Spivey Hill Challenge, P.O. Box 805, Graham, TX 76450.
Shana Wolfe, who serves a Mayor Pro Tem and has served as a board member for the Spivey Hill Challenge since 2017, said one thing that will never be forgotten is Epperson’s smile and laugh.

“Her smile would just light up the room. Wherever she went, she was just so enthusiastic. Even until her last days, she was just always so positive,” she said. “You couldn’t even tell how much she was hurting because she wanted everybody else to feel comfortable. People would ask her how she was feeling and she’d say, ‘I’m fine. I’m fine.’ She just wanted to make everybody else happy and everybody feel special.”