Sandra Lynn Hooten was born September 23, 1958 in Ayer Massachusetts to Robert Stanley Kielpinski and Marion Soto. She passed away peacefully on July 2, 2026 with her loving family surrounding her.

Sandy traveled all over the world as an army brat and ended up settling in Copperas Cove, Texas.

At a young age, she took school very seriously and made excellent grades, and in her spare time, she would play the organ. She also learned to sew and so many other things starting at a young age.

In the 1970’s, she relocated to Texas and started making numerous friends. She was in a relationship that lasted for a while and as a result, Anthony Michael (Tiger) was born in 1975. In the 1980’s, she had another relationship that welcomed Luther Jay (Punkin) to the world in 1982. She fell in love instantly with Tiger and Punkin at the moment both of boys were born. In 1986, she met the love of her life Trey Hooten, and after a long friendship, they married on August 1, 1987. She then welcomed Angela Lynn Hooten into the world on October 17, 1988. Now she had two beautiful boys and a beautiful princess daughter which she called angel baby most of the time.

Time went by, and she loved being a mother to all three children, but she wanted to also further her career. She followed her husband Trey’s path in wanted to become EMS certified and work on the ambulance. This went on for years, and she later became the dispatch supervisor for a local ambulance service. She was continuing to advance her career and became not only state certified, but also obtained her national EMS certification, continuing with American Red Cross first aide/CPR instructor, American Heart Association CPR Instructor. She also obtained Texas Department of Health Pediatric Prehospital Provider Course EMS for children Advanced level certification. Numerous other achievements were awarded during her time with Emergency Medical Service. In later years, her and husband Trey opened up L&T Audio/Video Production and later would open Music World music store. Sandy and Trey loved working beside each other.

In 1998, Sandy and Trey’s first grandchild Samantha was born. This brought so much joy into their hearts. They couldn’t spend enough time with Samantha. Sandy would keep her all of the time. She was such a happy grandma.

In October 1999, Sandy and Trey’s world fell apart. Angela Lynn had a sudden onset of a cerebral bleed in the brain and passed away. They were devastated. For months, Sandy was in a major depression and barely spoke and had a blank stare. Over time, she would start spending time with Samantha again and soon after, granddaughter Gabrielle was born in 2000. Now she had another baby to fall in love with. She started keeping both of them all of the time. In 2002, granddaughter Laurie was born. Another granddaughter and so much more love.

In the early 2000’s, Sandy was offered a position with a local funeral home in Copperas Cove where she became the office manager. She wasn’t sure about this at first, but it ended up being a good fit for her. She was able to help so many families in their worst time because she had been through it. She would cry and hug on the families as they were going through the terrible time in their lives. She truly understood and would help them in any way possible. While she was there, she started to transition computers in to the funeral homes in central Texas and became a regional trainer as well as still being

the office manager for Copperas Cove. She continued with the funeral home until she retired and continued helping her husband Trey with his business endeavors.

In 2006, once again Sandy was so excited when Jesse was born in to this world. Sandy immediately adopted Jesse as a grandson, and again was so happy!

In 2007, grandson Nathaniel was born. The night Nathaniel was born, Sandy and Trey, Samantha and Gabrielle were at a Martina McBride concert in Austin Texas. After exiting the concert, they had a voice mail saying Nathaniel was born. They left Austin and drove straight to Temple to see Nathaniel. Very happy grandma again!!

In 2011, Punkin and Kathy welcomed their first child Lilly in to the world. Grandma Sandy had another granddaughter. And again, she was jumping up and down with happiness and thanking God for all of these beautiful grandbabies.

In 2015, Leya was born and it was on again. Grandma was so excited to have another grandbaby.

The bond with all of the grandkids grew and grew as every day passed by. What Sandy talked about most was all of her beautiful grandkids. The house was covered wall to wall, shelf by shelf of grandkids. And of course her kids were on the wall also. Not a lot of wall space left. She would share/post all of the time about her grandchildren. She stayed so proud of all of them. She would say often that all of her grandchildren were so pretty. Trey told her one day, “You probably shouldn’t call the boys pretty”. She looked at him and said, “Well they are pretty, and I love them so much”. Trey said, “Maybe handsome??” Sandy said, “nooooooo, PRETTY!!!”

Sandy loved reading books, and she would even share her books with her grandchildren. Sandy and granddaughter Gabrielle would often go to the library together to get books.

Sandy had been a music lover for so many years. She shared all types of music with her grandchildren. One of her favorite things to do was to play Nasty Boys by Janet Jackson, and have all the grandchildren dance to it while she did her own little dance moves sitting in a chair. Her beautiful laugh could be heard while that song was playing, and after the song was over, she would tell all of the girls, “That’s right, stay away from boys!”, and she would laugh some more.

Some of Sandy’s most favorite parts of the bible are The Lord’s Prayer, John 3:16, Psalms 103 and the whole book of Jobe was a huge comfort for her. She still has the bible she bought for Angela right next to her bed.

Sandy is survived by her loving husband Trey. They were approaching 40 years of a wonderful marriage. She is also survived by her sons: Anthony (Tiger) and his wife Natalie, Luther (Punkin) and his wife Kathy; grandchildren: Samantha, Gabrielle, Laurie, Nathaniel, Jesse, Lilly and Leya; brothers: Allen, Rob, Martin and his wife Denice, and Keith, sister: Bonnie Hoofer and her husband Terrence; and numerous nieces and nephews.

She is preceded in death by her parents Robert Stanley Kielpinski and Marion Soto, and daughter Angela Lynn Hooten.

Donations of books may be made to the Copperas Cove library in loving memory of Sandy Hooten.

Visitation will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Friday, July 10, at Harper-Talasek Funeral Home in Killeen. A funeral service will follow at 1 p.m.

If you are unable to attend, please consider joining via Facebook Live using this link:
Facebook Live