Who was 'my' Levi Jenkins?

We did a feature on this blog about the "other" Levi Jenkins, perhaps you may be interesting in the Levi Jenkins that I know.

I never had the chance to meet Levi Jenkins Sr. - my grandfather - who made his transition before the time of my birth. I spent my childhood and my teen years with my father Levi Jenkins Jr.

My Levi Jenkins (1948 - 1997)

Levi Jenkins Jr. grew up near Mound Bayou, Mississippi on his grandfather Tom Jenkins' land with his brothers and sisters in addition to his paternal grandmother the former Georgia Johnson. His mother was the former Evelyn Liggins - a detail that became important later, as I’ve shared with family members: Dad’s passing at a young age involved both his own personal demons and the hypertension that ran in his mother’s family.

My uncle spoke of my dad in recent years and noted that he never cared much for farm work. Ultimately when he came of age he followed his older brother & sisters to Chicago.

For most of his twenties he largely worked in manufacturing. One of his early jobs was manufacturing components for munitions that were to be sent to Vietnam. As matter of fact, he was of draft age during the Vietnam conflict and he had to watch TV every night to see if his draft number was called, it wasn't.

He later worked at Hotpoint, a job that still provides some benefits to the family today. When he left manufacturing, the job I remember he had during my youth was as a night watchman for the Chicago Public Schools. He primarily worked the night shift at various schools on the west and south sides of Chicago.

It was a lonely job - making rounds through empty buildings, often by himself. That solitude became tragically significant: he had collapsed at work, and no one knows exactly how long he lay unconscious before he was found.

As a father he was such a goofball, but if there was something I should've learned easily he should not be trifled with. And I might attribute some of that to his upbringing and some of the choices he had made in his life. It seems listening to my uncle that Levi Sr. seemed to have been very hard on his boys.

My dad never graduated from high school in Mound Bayou, however, later in life he did attain a certificate in auto mechanics at Washburne Trade School in Chicago. He even dabbled in the automotive world working for time in the auto department at Montgomery Ward's.

As far as his family, I don't recall my dad talking a lot about his childhood or his family beyond his brothers and sisters. I don't recall him talking a lot about his dad or even his mother. I had the opportunity to get to know his maternal side and he seemed particularly close to his aunt Sara Lee Ford of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He never exposed me to the family of his maternal grandfather Joe Liggins. Reportedly Dad had once met with his cousin Stanley Liggins at home, but I have no recollection of ever meeting him. What doesn't help that situation was that his maternal grandfather had no other children beyond his only daughter Evelyn.

There were a precious few of his first cousins I had met. Many of them were spread out between Memphis, TN; Portland, OR; or Indianapolis, IN. I especially remember him picking up his 1st cousin Richard Jones - the son of his paternal Aunt Lucy Jenkins Jones - when he lived in Chicago for a time. I only met his last surviving paternal uncle Augusta Jenkins at the time of my dad's funeral in 1997.

In his final years, Dad struggled with hypertension. My mother recalled him saying he didn’t want to be on medication for the rest of his life. According to his death certificate, he had suffered a hemorrhage. When he reached the hospital, he was placed on life support and never regained consciousness after collapsing at work. One of his maternal aunts told us at his funeral that hypertension ran strongly on her side of the family and had contributed to Evelyn’s own early death. My uncle has echoed that my paternal grandmother did not take care of her health.

The period surrounding Dad’s passing was a difficult whirlwind. My mother leaned on her sister-in-law, Magnolia Jenkins Morris, to help arrange the services and find an undertaker. The funeral was held at Magnolia’s church - New Progressive Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago - where Dad had joined a few years earlier.

I’m sorry to say he never received a headstone. My mother could never bring herself to order one during her lifetime; the pain was simply too great. While we both knew he hadn’t been taking the best care of his health, his sudden death was something none of us truly expected.

Dad did speak somewhat fondly of country life in Mississippi and occasionally talked about moving back down there one day. I sometimes wondered if he would have been happier had he stayed - city life never seemed to suit him.

I had hoped he would address his health, find a better job, and finally earn his G.E.D. He sometimes got discouraged easily, but I always wished he could have achieved that.

Despite his many setbacks, what I will always remember is how dedicated he was to providing for his wife, the former Lois Burns, and his two sons. In the spirit of the “OTC,” Roman Reigns, he did what he could to put food on the table. At the very least, it would have been nice to see him as a retired man now - he had earned that peace.

I may create a full dedicated page for him one day, but this is my introduction to the man I knew.

And while I believe it was no coincidence that Tom Jenkins named his firstborn son after his younger brother Levi (who also had a son named Levi Jr.), only my grandfather knows why he chose to name his own son Levi Jr. as well.

Descendants of Garrison & Delia Jenkins