"Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart."
--- Washington Irving
American writer and historian
An ineffable feeling --- we know when we've found a friend. I had known Nellie Ruth Rogers Jenkins, who lamentably passed away last September, all my life. She was the mother of my childhood comrades Rhonda, Sondra, and Roger Jenkins with whom I attended Bowling Green School and First Baptist Sunday School.
They were also my distant cousins. Ms. Nellie's husband William - Mr. Bill - is a Jenkins. My grandmother Emma Elizabeth Brumfield was a Jenkins. As is often the case, I don't know exactly how Mr. Bill and I are kin, just that we are. But mainly, I knew his wife Nellie, at least initially, through the bank. That's where I first came to know her.
A native of Pine, Nellie was born in 1939 to George and Viola Bedwell Rogers. She was the sister of James B. Rogers, Verdie Mae Knight, and Ruthie Mae Graves. Nellie graduated from Pine High School in the 1950s. Following graduation, she sagely began her career in banking, starting at First State Bank in Bogalusa in 1958. I believe that's where my dad first encountered Nellie Jenkins. He frequented the Bogalusa branch of First State Bank where his good friend Joe Thornhill, Jr., held court back in the day on Columbia Street.
But before long, Ms. Nellie was a fixture at Washington Bank, on the corner of Washington and Cleveland in Franklinton, where I came to know her. Teaching me about dollars and cents, my dad sent me, in my youth, to the bank with instructions, "Talk to Nellie." And so I did. I don't believe I ever entered Washington Bank without her greeting and advising me. I may have been putting a piddling amount in my student account, but Ms. Nellie didn't mind. Always affable, she was there as long as I can remember, before she retired as Vice President of Hancock Bank in 2000.
As a bit of banking background, J. B. Lindsay who came to town in late 1913 organized Washington Bank & Trust Co., which opened on January 12, 1914, in the building where the Bank of Franklinton had been. Initial officers were J. B. Lindsay, President, and Frank M. Brown, Vice President. Lynn H. Dinkins, D. H. McCreary, and Chess B. Jones served on the Board of Directors, and by 1917, Wiley S. Burris, Sr., was Cashier. In more recent years, Washington Bank was bought by Hancock Bank. And then we watched it become Hancock-Whitney Bank.
Back to Ms. Nellie, by the time she retired she had a legion of customers at Hancock Bank --- from me with my pennies and my piggybank to local tycoons, rich as Rockefeller. And I can say with certitude that they revered and relied on her, just as I did. A natural, Nellie knew the banking business, and she knew her clientele. The rest was gravy.
Ms. Nellie was also successful outside the bank. She and Mr. Bill, her husband of sixty-three years, lived on pastoral property and had a beautiful family together --- son Roger, married to Jill; daughter Rhonda, married to Terry Lambert; and daughter Sondra, married to Matthew Hunt; grandchildren Rosalind Jenkins Wilson, married to Peter Wilson II; William Jenkins; Sarah Nell Hunt Kinsey, married to Captain Matthew Kinsey; David Hunt; Reid Lambert; and Leah Lambert; and great-grandchildren Peter Wilson III and Mary Rogers Wilson.
Digressing, after my husband Rodney and I eloped back in 1988, Ms. Nellie's son and daughter-in-law, our friends Roger and Jill, were two of the first four guests through the door for the celebratory reception my parents hosted at our home, down on the Enon Road. I have a memory like an elephant. And we've stayed in touch with Jill and Roger all these years. Suffice to say, we go way back.
Nellie was also a stalwart citizen in our community - a member of the First Baptist Church of Franklinton, Gleaners Sunday School class, the Winterset Club, and the Franklinton Garden Club. Ms. Nellie also steadfastly served on the Board of Keep Washington Parish Beautiful. Industrious, she was a master gardener, a designation that is difficult - though not for her - to achieve.
And Ms. Nellie also went into the mayhaw business, making her own brand of jelly, known as "Nellie's Jellies" - a prosperous endeavor. That’s the second chapter of how I knew my friend Nellie Jenkins. I do not recall my first sampling of her jellies. All I remember is calling her at home. "Ms. Nellie, where can I get more of your jellies?" Mentioning mayhaw and blueberry, she seemed flattered that I seemed so desperate. But she didn't know the whole story, until I unspooled it. You see, my daughter was on an accelerated route to Tulane School of Medicine, having been accepted in the fall of 2010, as a freshman in college. She had begun medical research exceptionally early, working in professors' labs at both LSU Medical School and Tulane Medical School. And it was there, at both institutions, that Betsy handed out jelly to her mentors, not just any jelly - Nellie's Jellies.
In the beginning, I had just a couple of jars at home that, on a whim, I gave Betsy to give to a couple of her favorite professors. "Here, take these." But before we knew it, she was being recognized as the student who brought the homemade jellies. Betsy was constantly calling me, begging for more of Ms. Nellie's jellies. I bought them at Jack Brown's. Accordingly, we've never forgotten Ms. Nellie or her delicious jellies. I doubt Betsy's mentors have either.
In my mind, Ms. Nellie - banker turned entrepreneur - saw me through my youth. And she sort of saw Betsy through medical school. Now, that's a true friend. I already miss her.
Happy Mother's Day!
