Jensine Marie Nolan

Jensine Nolan was born on December 21,1952 at Scripps Mercy Hospital in San Diego. She passed away on September 25, 2026, due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease. Brought up in the Lutheran tradition, she was a member of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in North Park along with her parents, Donald King and Lillian Person King, and brother Gordon King. Gifted musically, she began piano lessons at the age of seven, adding organ lessons in her early teens. She began singing in the Our Savior’s adult choir in seventh grade, and by her senior year at Crawford High School, she was singing in five school or church choral groups. After high school, she attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where she majored in church organ, minored in vocal performance, and sang with the internationally renowned St. Olaf Choir. After graduation in 1975, she returned to San Diego and found employment as a marketing assistant with Innovative Data Technologies, while at the same time pursuing her dream of being a church organist and choir director. A convert to Catholicism in her early 20s, she directed a choir at The Immaculata Parish and later served as soprano section leader of the Mary, Star of the Sea Parish Choir in La Jolla. In 1978, she joined the choir at St. Brigid Catholic Parish in Pacific Beach, where she met her husband Bill when he joined the choir as cantor in 1982. From 1978 through 1981, Jenny sang with the San Diego Opera chorus. At St. Brigid, she first served as assistant organist and choirmaster, later becoming organist and Music Director in 1995, where she served until her retirement in 2018. In 1989, she joined the staff at Chapman’s Diesel, the diesel engine repair company owned and operated by her father, brother Gordon and sister-in-law Carol, where she worked until it closed in 1999. From 1999 to 2007, she was Assistant Director of Liturgy for the Catholic Diocese of San Diego, where she planned the music and directed choirs for diocesan Masses and liturgical events. After retirement from St. Brigid, Jenny was in demand as a substitute organist, playing frequently for several churches in the greater San Diego area until shortly before her passing.

Jenny was a devoted wife, a loving mother to son John, and a doting nanna to grandson Gabriel. She formed lasting bonds of affection with all her musical colleagues, who were drawn to her humility, her love of laughter, her passion for music and liturgy, and her infectious joy of life. She was a dedicated servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, His Church, and God’s people, spending countless hours preparing for the Masses, liturgies, weddings and funerals whose music she directed and/or played. Making beautiful music for our God was truly a calling for her, to which she responded with zeal and great love.

The funeral service for Jenny will take place at St. Brigid Church on October 24, 2026, beginning at 10:30 a.m.