Stephen Douglas Jacks

Stephen Douglas Jacks, age 85, of Houston, died Thursday, the 9th of February 2012, at Memorial Hermann Hospital, one week before his 86th birthday. Doug collapsed in Meyer Park shopping center and was aided by helpful strangers who performed CPR until paramedics arrived.

Doug was born in Beaumont on the 15th of February 1926, to Jimmie Jacks Brown and Stephen Jacks and he grew up in East Texas. He graduated from Allen Academy in Bryan. Doug enlisted in the US Army at 18 and fought in World War II in Germany and Italy before coming home and graduating from the University of Houston. Doug worked in Wyoming and Colorado as an oil and gas land man after college, then returned to Houston, teaching math and science at Deady Junior High until his retirement in 1985.

Doug is preceded in death by his mother and father, Jimmie Jacks Brown and Stephen Jacks; his sister, Thelma Jo Lange; his aunts, Montie Dunkin and Josephine Mixon; and his uncle Grover Mixon. He is survived by his wife, Marianne D. Jacks; his son, Donald Jacks and wife Lisa of Lander, Wyoming; his son, Dan Jacks and his wife Alisa of Kingwood; and his daughter, Betsy Riley and her husband Mitch of Houston. Doug is also survived by six grandchildren, Cody and Michael Jacks, Alaina and Caia Jacks, and Kate and Drew Riley, whom he loved greatly.

Very dear to Doug were his sister-in-law, Margaret Davidson Bolling, and her son David Bolling, his wife Dianna Bolling and children Joseph, Claire, Caroline and Emily, all of Houston. Another dear friend is Sarah Gowan Crawford of Mobile, Alabama. He also loved the pastors and members of South Main Baptist Church in downtown Houston.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from four o’clock in the afternoon until seven o’clock in the evening on Sunday, the 12th of February, in the Library and Grand Foyer of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons at 1010 Bering in Houston.

The memorial service is to be conducted at two o’clock in the afternoon on Monday, the 13th of February, at South Main Baptist Church, 4100 Main Street in Houston, where Doug was a longtime and proud member. Dr. Steve Wells, Senior Pastor, and Rev. M. Eugene Vickrey are to officiate. Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception in the adjacent Welcome Center.

The family will gather for an interment service at Rockland Cemetery in Rockland, where Rev. David Bolling is to officiate.

In lieu of customary remembrances, the family requests that contributions in memory of Doug be made to the Benevolence Fund at South Main Baptist Church, 4100 Main St., Houston, TX, 77002; or to the charity of one’s choice.