After a battle of more than 12 years with Parkinson’s Disease, Jacqueline “Jackie” Wenger of Mitchellville, MD went home to be with the Lord on Friday, February 3, 2023. She was born in Providence, Rhode Island on March 30, 1949, and raised in Riverside, Rhode Island.
Jackie lived an extraordinary life that touched many people in many different walks of life.
She was a faithful member of the Largo Community Church for more than 30 years. She co-founded the Drama Ministry, taught classes based on our God-Given gifts as enumerated in Romans 12:6-8, hosted small church group meetings at her home, wrote for the Church newsletter, and was a member of the Wednesday morning women’s bible study group.
She was a lifelong learner. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Rhode Island and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Tennessee. For more than 25 years she worked as a social worker, first in West Virginia, and then beginning in 1987, at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, DC. She also taught social work classes at West Virginia University and facilitated training workshops for social workers at the University of Maryland.
At the age of 50, Jackie returned to school at Catholic University in Washington, DC to earn a Ph.D. in the sociology of religion. While in school, she co-authored two books with her mentor, Dr. Dean R. Hoge: Evolving Visions of the Priesthood: Changes from Vatican II to the Turn of the New Century, published in 2003, and Pastors in Transition: Why Clergy Leave Local Church Ministry, published in 2005. After receiving her Ph.D., she worked at the Pew Research Center in Washington, DC.
Jackie married her husband, Michael, in 1988, and inherited three children. Over the years she became a devoted and loving grandmother to four grandchildren and a great grandchild.
She is survived by her husband, Michael Wenger; two sisters, Patricia Marie Trahan and Sandra Simmons Macomber; three stepchildren, Regina Cherree Poteat, Arnya Lionette Fennell, and Ian Kimani Wenger; four grandchildren, Arian Cherree Fennell, Alexis Dominique Fennell, Michael Ian Poteat, and Lana Simone Wenger; a great grandson, Noah Thomas Atcherson; four nieces, Kimberlee Ann Hayes, Rebecca Marie Trahan, Jenifer Lynn Stromfors, and Nicole Coe; one nephew, Ernest Arthur Trahan III; and eight grandnieces and nephews.
She was predeceased by her parents, Edward and Evelyn Simmons, and a brother, Edward Simmons.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.robertevansfuneralhome.com for the Wenger family.
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