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Allen Greene Jenkins SR b. 1893 was the son of Joseph Edward Jenkins and his wife Nancy Melvina Heath. (I am a Heath researcher).
Allen Greene JENKINS Sr b. 15 May 1893 CA d. 7 June 1986 Contra Costa, CA. m.ca. 1920 Florence SHOCKLEY b.ca. 1902 Idaho (she says her father born AL, her mother OR and that they married when she was 18). In 1900 census he is living in the Good Templar Home for Orphans in Vallejo, Solano, CA at age 6, along with his siblings Margie, Harry and Millie Jenkins. Living in 1910 at age 17 with his father and new stepmother in Kern Co. CA. In 1920 census at age 26 he is single, living with his uncle William Jonas Heath age 60 in Kern Co CA working as a timekeeper for the oil company. However it appears he married sometime that year and moved by 1923 to Taylor County, TX. At age 48 (1941) on his WWII registration card, Allen filled out his place of residence as 542 Grant St, Vallejo, Solano, CA and listed his next of kin as Mrs. A.G. Jenkins living at 2215 California Ave, Bakersfield, CA. He listed his current employment (military service) as U.S. Govt, Mare Island, CA. In the April 1930 census Allen and his wife Florence are living down in Taylor County, TX where he is working as a dairyman for a dairy. Living with him in Taylor Co TX is his sister Margaret May ‘Maggie (Jenkins) Brinkman’s child Rolla Brinkman (22) and his wife 25 yr old Bettie Brinkman. Rolla says he is doing ‘odd jobs.’ In this same household is a Flora Bustamante listed as ‘niece’ age 5 born in CA to a father from Central America and mother from California. It is unclear who this child is. The children of Allen Greene Jenkins from the 1930 census were:
Allen Greene Jenkins JR b.ca. 1923 TX d. 23 May 2002 CA
Flora J Jenkins b.ca. 1925 TX
Mary N. Jenkins b.ca. 1927 TX
Obit San Francisco Chronicle 5/31/2002
Allen Jenkins Jr., an advocate for the visually impaired and longtime
director of the state's Orientation Center for the Blind in Albany, has died.
Mr. Jenkins died May 23 at his home in Berkeley after a fight with lung
cancer. He was 80.
Mr. Jenkins was the founding director of the Orientation Center for the
Blind, the only residential program run by the state that prepares blind
people to live and work independently. He held that post for 42 years.
Leading through the example of his own life, Mr. Jenkins helped blind
adults not only to learn how to navigate the physical world, but also to cope
with pervasive attitudes that equate blindness with helplessness.
"His idea was that basically we needed to change people's attitudes first,"
said Diane Smith, who has taught at the Orientation Center for 32 years.
Sometimes, that was an uphill battle. One 19-year-old woman came to the
center having never brushed her own teeth, while others had been shut away by
family members ashamed of their blindness.
Mr. Jenkins, who did all the plumbing and electrical work on his own house
even though he was blind, would build students' confidence by having them work
with dangerous equipment such as sewing machines and power woodworking tools.
He also taught them how to handle money, to cook and to navigate public
transportation systems.
"People who come here generally come to understand that blindness is in the
eye and doesn't affect other talents or functions or aspirations," Mr. Jenkins
told The Chronicle in 1976. "Graduates of the center are homemakers,
practicing physicians, physicists, chemists, machinists, lawyers."
Mr. Jenkins was born in 1922 in Abilene, Texas. When he was 8, he was
injured after a fall from the rafters of a shack and lost the use of one of
his eyes immediately. As a result of a condition called sympathetic ophthalmia,
he became completely blind over the course of two years.
Mr. Jenkins was fond of telling the story about how, when he was 10, he ran
away from a school for the blind that he had been sent to attend. He left out
of boredom and frustration with the low expectations the school had set for
him.
"They told him he had to tune pianos, make baskets or make brooms for a
living," said his daughter, Janice Pavese.
He hitchhiked, alone, some 400 miles back to his family's dairy farm. Back
at home, he worked milking cows and learned braille from a woman in town,
Pavese said.
He graduated from Abilene Christian College Demonstration High School in
1941 and moved with his family to California shortly after that.
He attended Santa Rosa Junior College and then transferred to UC Berkeley.
He graduated in 1946 with a degree in political science.
Mr. Jenkins then became a rehabilitation counselor for the state of
California.
Catherine Skivers, president of the California Council of the Blind, said
she first met Mr. Jenkins in 1949, when he helped her find her first job, as a
switchboard operator.
"The thing that helped you was here you had this blind man telling you,
'You can work. I do,' " Skivers said. "He always told people it's not good
enough to do a good job when you are blind or visually impaired. You have to
do it better."
Mr. Jenkins, who had once attended law school but dropped out to support
his wife's medical school education, lobbied for legislation that created the
Orientation Center for the Blind in 1951.
He also helped to draft numerous laws that affected the lives of the blind
and was active in organizations such as the American Council of the Blind and
its California chapter.
Friends said Mr. Jenkins also loved to sing and to tell stories and
limericks.
Mr. Jenkins' wife of 56 years, Leonie Logan Jenkins, died in 2000. He is
survived by four daughters, Janice Pavese of Oakland; Jocelyn Miner of San
Francisco; Jessica Logan of Granger, Ind.; and Jennifer Clark of San Francisco;
a son, Allen Jenkins III of Richmond; two sisters, Nancy Pickett and Jean
Jenkins, both of Elk Grove; and three grandchildren.
A memorial service is pending.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Allen Jenkins Jr. Scholarship
Fund, California Council of the Blind, 578 B St., Hayward, CA 94541; or to the
Arts and Science program at the School of the Madeleine, 1225 Milvia St.,
Berkeley, CA 94709.
I would be interested in talking with descendants of this family to ascertain if there are old photos and trade and exchange information on this line. Nancy Melvina Heath was out of the 'Jonas Blue Heath' line out of Benton County Missouri and I have complete info on that line.
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