Roll Call Tribute

Deanna S. Cross

January 4, 1971 - July 16, 2024 

Deanna Cross, 53, died on July 16, 2024, at her home in Fort Worth, Texas.

Deanna was born in 1971, in northeast Texas, to Buddy and Becky Cross. She was raised “at the intersection of the two dirt roads” in Warren, Texas, and graduated from Monsignor Kelly High School in Beaumont, Texas, in 1989. She attended Texas A&M University and earned her bachelor’s degree in bioenvironmental sciences in 1993 and a doctorate in plant pathology in 1999. She earned an additional master’s degree in genetic counseling from BayPath University in 2019.

Deanna married Clay Maugans in College Station, Texas, on March 12, 1994. Clay and Deanna met during their freshman year at Texas A&M and recently celebrated 30 years of a loving and joyful marriage.

After receiving her doctorate, Deanna worked at the Marshfield Clinic in Wausau, Wisconsin, for 12 years as a medical researcher. In 2012, Deanna returned to Texas, where she served the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) as a professor teaching classes in genetics and evidence-based medicine. She was most recently a genetic counselor with GeneScreen Counseling.

Deanna was a member of the Fort Worth Club, a runner of half-marathons and 5Ks with friends, and a valued patron of the Fort Worth Lab fitness center. She loved walking and biking the Trinity River Trail, traveling to foreign countries with her husband, reading trashy romance novels, celebrating the change of seasons, and cooking gourmet meals for her friends and family. She lived in the Mistletoe Heights Neighborhood of Fort Worth in a historic house that she dearly loved.

Upon her diagnosis of stage 4 colorectal cancer in 2022, Deanna endured chemotherapy and surgeries with poise, grace, and a positive demeanor.

Survivors of Deanna Cross include her husband, Clay, of Fort Worth, her mother and father of Warren, Texas; two sisters, Patricia, of Clarksville, Texas, and Daphne, of Houston, Texas; mother-in-law Susan Maugans of Humble, Texas; brother-in-law Rexford W. Maugans and wife Lori of Humble, Texas, and brother-in-law Wade Maugans and wife Alma of Pearland, Texas; many beloved nephews, and hundreds of friends and colleagues who will miss her dearly.

She was preceded in death by her father-in-law, Rex Maugans.

At Deanna’s request, her body was donated to the University of North Texas Health Science Center for the advancement of science, and cremation will take place at a later date.

A Celebration of Life will be held at a future date. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made in her name to Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School’s tuition assistance fund at (409)866-2351 or to the UNTHSC Medical Foundation at foundation@unthsc.edu.