This is the fifth in a series of features on candidates who have advertised on
The Logan Journal.
Dealing with serious illnesses that her two sons experienced early in their lives convinced Tina Hudson McKinney that she had the skills, compassion and caring nature to become a nurse. Her experiences as an ICU nurse dealing with severe illnesses and even death led to her decision to seek the office of Logan County Coroner, subject to the May 20 Democratic Primary Election.
“Tina has a natural gift for giving care to and showing compassion for others,” says her husband Kevin.
He knows that better than anyone else.
For the last eight years, Kevin McKinney, a former Cold Mill Roll Shop employee at Logan Aluminum, has dealt with Parkinson’s Disease. As the symptoms and effects have become more and more pronounced, he has needed more help coping with all that accompanies the disabling illness. His wife has been by his side throughout it all. Her natural abilities, her caring nature and her medical training have combined to make dealing with the disease much easier. She has been by his side on every step of the way.
The daughter of Tim and Bonnie Hudson of Spa, Tina was an eighth grader at Lewisburg when the five county schools consolidated. She was a member of the first graduating class to have spent four years at Logan County High School in 1986.
She worked at Logan Aluminum in Finishing for three and a half years, where she met and married Muhlenberg County native Kevin McKinney. When their first child, Dylan, suffered serious medical problems at age nine months, the McKinneys decided one of them needed a job that didn’t involve working swing shift.
A second child, Zac, also became ill, and his mom nursed him to health. “I realized then that if I could take of my kids in this way, I could be a nurse,” she says. (Both sons are healthy now. Dylan works for North Logan-based Down & Dirty Outdoors, and Zac is finishing his junior year at LCHS.)
Not only did they give up one income, but they made the decision for Mrs. McKinney to become a full-time college student. She earned her undergraduate degree at Western Kentucky University and then went on to nursing school at WKU. She became a Registered Nurse in 2004, shortly before Mr. McKinney’s illness and long-range prospects were diagnosed.
She worked six years at Muhlenberg Community Hospital in Greenville before Logan Memorial Hospital Human Resources Director Courtney Jackson offered her a position at the hospital in Russellville. She has worked as a nurse in the intensive care unit ever since.
“I think this is the place in life I was meant to be,” she says. “I try to treat patients and patients’ families the way I would want my family to be treated. In this role, I’ve dealt with death frequently, and I’ve discovered that I have the compassion and caring to help families in this time of need.”
Hospital management, including Jackson, have assured her there would be no problem with her serving as coroner and continuing to fill her role at Logan Memorial.
“I can’t turn off my desire to help,” McKinney says.
Tina McKinney’s extended family includes her brother, Tim Hudson Jr., who works at Ventra Plastics, and his wife Angie along with Tina’s sister, Sherry Whitman, who works at Lewisburg School, and Sherry’s husband, Lanny Whitman, a long-time employee of Carpenter Co.
Kevin and Tina McKinney are active in Ebeneezer Missionary Baptist Church and are believers in the power of prayer and faith.
Paid for by Tina Hudson McKinney