Nancy Jenkins

Nancy Mary Theresa Torres was born in Queens, New York on November 16, 1951. She answered God's call on June 26, 2016; only 64 years of age. Her parents were Louis and Sylvia Torres. They both moved to Miami, Florida in 1959 along with Nancy's sister, Laura Keyes. Nancy married Bob Jenkins in Miami in 1971 and they moved to Texas in 1976.

Nancy Jenkins is survived by her husband of 45 years Bob Jenkins of Spring, Texas; Her two daughters Laura and Callie also in Spring and her sister, Laura Keyes of Fort Myers, Florida.

A letter from Bob to Nancy:

I met my wife, Nancy Torres in January of 1970. She was with some mutual friends who had stopped by my house in Miami. She had the most beautiful dark eyes I had ever seen. I was on leave from the Army and would be shipping out for Germany in 10 days. We dated almost every day. It wasn't long before I found a lot more to love than just her eyes. Time moved quickly and I wrote to her almost every day from Europe until seven months later when my enlistment was finally over and I returned.

We continued to date exclusively for a year then we married in October of 1971. By that time, I was a firefighter in Hollywood, Florida, so we moved into an apartment in Hollywood. Though it was only forty minutes from her parents' house, it was the furthest she had ever been from her family. Nancy worked at the newspaper where my father was a reporter. Even before our marriage it was apparent that me being a firefighter frightened her. She learned to live with her fears because she knew it was what I really wanted.

Nancy loved the beach and she loved to travel. We made frequent day trips or overnighters visiting distant beaches to collect shells and to visit tourist attractions along the way. In fact, we went to Disney World the year it opened as a second honeymoon. After we came to Texas in 1976, we started car-camping. Nancy became a big fan of antique shops, old Spanish Missions, roadside produce vendors and flea-markets. She was also a history buff and made sure we stopped at every Historical Marker we passed. Our vacations were car-camping adventures too. We toured all of the south and made it to the Grand Canyon twice. When we weren't on the road we liked going to concerts and saw many of our favorite performers of the day including Sonny, Cher and The Righteous Brothers.

Nancy's favorite activity was cooking and she had already accomplished this before we were married. She delighted in trying new recipes from the many cookbooks found in our travels. She always told me that she loved cooking but hated deciding what to cook. she was very vexed with me when I would say "I don't care; I'll eat anything". I think watching me eat was more fun for her than the cooking. Although Nancy went to college for business courses she didn't work once we moved to Texas, preferring to be a home-making wife. She planted a garden and became a home decorator. Before we had our own children she would watch over children of friends, especially babies and toddlers who she taught to read and color before they started kindergarten. Another pastime she liked was needle work and soon became so fond of it that she and some neighbor friends started their own shop and called it Westfield Needleworks.

In 1989 we were blessed with out first daughter, Laura. Nancy gave up the shop to be a stay-at-home mom. Once Laura started school Nancy became involved with the PTO and started volunteering at the school helping staff and faculty. She continued this even after Callie, our second daughter was born in 1995. Callie practically grew up at Anderson Elementary while her mom volunteered and her sister attended classes. Nancy was a fixture at the school until Callie finished.

Nancy loved her daughters and was proud of them; she did everything she could to help them along. she said they were her greatest achievement.

Now after four years of living with kidney disease and its complications Nancy is gone from us. We hope she knows how much we love her. I hope she will not miss us as much as we will miss her.

If I ever travel the roads Nancy and I once did I will stop at each old Mission and light a candle for her, My Bride. I Love He so.