Eva Louise Jenkins

Eva Louise Pate Jenkins was born September 13, 1920 at the home of her maternal grandparents in Granger, Texas. Her parents were Mabel Hawkins Pate and Granville Pate. They lived on a farm in Elgin, TX. She had one brother two years younger. She recalled a very happy childhood. She belonged to the Methodist church, but there was no dancing back then. Her friends were always welcome to hang out at her house. She lived beside the railroad tracks and when the depression was so bad, many men riding trains came to their door asking for food, which her Mother always gave them.

Her parents divorced when she was 16, so she and her Mother and brother moved to Austin to live with her grandparents. They played a large part in her life. She said that her grandmother was the best woman she had ever known, even though she didn’t appreciate her goodness when she was a child and teenager. She recalls her grandfather being a fun person. He took them fishing, played dominoes with them and worked jigsaw puzzles. Her Mother worked at the old Confederate Home in Austin (now torn down). Her Mother remarried in 1935 and her step-father was a truck driver; so they moved to Houston. She graduated from Milby High School in 1936, and entered UT in the fall, living with her Grandparents. She worked in the library in one of the buildings that is still there next to the Erwin Center. Times were tough and she had to drop out after the first semester and go back home. Her brother developed rheumatic fever when he was eleven. Now it is treated with antibiotics, but it was a very big deal then. He had his tonsils out which was supposed to help, but it affected his heart. His heart was enlarged and he was very ill. By age sixteen, he was in a wheelchair. Eva met Pete Jenkins and fell in love and they wanted to get married. So they just drove to Rosenberg to a minister’s house and got married without telling anyone until they came back. Her brother died nine days later. His name was Jimmie Dale. Their first child, Nancy Dale, was born in 1939. She was the apple of Eva’s eye and helped to fill the void in her heart when her brother died. She was named after her brother and her grandmother. When WWII started, her Mother said she was reconciled to his death because he would have been the age to go to war. Two more children were born to Eva and Pete, Caroline Ann Jenkins and Jimmie Francis Jenkins. Caroline was also named after Eva’s grandmother (Nancy Ann Caroline) and Jimmie was named after her brother, Jimmie Dale.

In 1949, Eve and Pete moved to Austin for a better job opportunity for Pete. He worked as a linesman for LCRA and then foreman until he retired. For a few years Eva was a stay at home wife. She grew beautiful flowers which she furnished to the Methodist church each week. She started to work at the Texas Employment Commission in 1953 as a file clerk. In a short time, she was put on a check writing machine. Very strict records were kept on errors and number of checks written. Then came computers! She said they all thought they would lose their jobs. Needless to say, they didn’t! She worked in labor and statistics until she retired. She was the second woman Labor Market Analyst at TEC at the time.

In 1974, Eva and Pete build their dream/retirement home in Westlake. She designed it to be a family gathering place, and that is exactly what it became for many years. Many of the grandchildren never celebrated a Christmas, Easter, or Thanksgiving anywhere else until they were grown. To this day, that house holds many happy memories and will always be close to our hearts. However, their dream was shattered when Pete was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and his subsequent death destroyed their retirement dreams. It was Eva’s strength that led the family through that terrible year of his illness and death. In her retirement, she was the caregiver for her parents, her aunt, whom she considered a second Mother and to her close cousin, Morton Turner. She cared for them all until their deaths.

Also in her retirement, she was active with the women’s group of her church, played in a bridge group and volunteered at the sewing room at Brackenridge Hospital where she stuffed animals for children. She took her animals and stuffing with her wherever she went. She also traveled to many different countries with her close friend, Ruth.

Her daughter Nancy married Ken Sellstrom, Caroline married Tom Kelly and then Jack Ragsdill and Jimmie married Linda Poindexter.

Eva had five grandsons, whom she called the light of her life. Larry Sellstrom, Clark Sellstrom, Stephen Kelly, Erin Kelly and Grayson Jenkins. The spent a great deal of the summers at their Mimi’s and had great times. She bought a 15 passenger van and a ski boat to take them and their friends to Westlake Beach and many other places. They called it their Mimi Mobile!

She is survived by Grandsons: Stephen Kelly and his wife Debbie. Clark Sellstrom, Erin Kelly and wife Kelsey, Grayson Jenkins and wife April. She is also survived by three step-grandchildren: Susan Littlefield and husband Dale, Scott Ragsdill and wife Pam, and Sam Ragsdill and wife Dana.

She had eleven great grandchildren: Amanda Kiecke, Abigal Sellstrom, Craig Sellstrom, Kaycie Kyndahl. Karlee, Kerina, Kamryn and Joe Kelly and Colbran and Augusta Jenkins; step great grands: Adrienne Christensen and husband Dave, Leah Bushnell and husband Tim, Lauren Littlefield and Alden Littlefield, Jack, Luke and Will Ragsdill, and Trinity and Taylor Ragsdill.

She is predeceased by her parents, stepfather, brother, husband and two sons in law, Kenneth Sellstrom and Thomas Kelly and also her oldest grandson, Larry Sellstrom.

She was adamant that she wanted to live in her home until she died; which she did until a year and a half ago when she moved to a Memory Care facility in Marble Falls, where she died on July 6, 2018 at the age of 97.

She was a wonderful wife, Mother, grandmother and great grandmother. But, to us, she was just Mimi.

The family would like to thank the staff of Arbor House for their loving and compassionate care.