Rita Beth Jinkins was born to Bonnie Corley (B.C.) Fenley Sr. and Cecil Lucille Strahan Fenley on December 23, 1930 and lived most of her life within sight of the house where she was born in Redland, just north of Lufkin, Texas. She earned her high school diploma at Redland High School, and after taking courses in a local business school began work as a bookkeeper at the Lufkin City Hall. Rita married Arden L. Jinkins, who, after graduating from Lufkin High School took a job as a welder for Lufkin Trailers. Both Rita and Arden remained with these employers throughout their work lives, gradually advancing through the ranks. Before they retired, Rita had become Director of Finance for the City of Lufkin, and Arden served in mid-level management for the trailer division of Lufkin Industries. Rita and Arden were devoted to their jobs, but enjoyed retirement even more. They were only parted by death when Arden passed away in 2016.
Rita loved her family, her home, her church, and her gardening. She was still mowing her own large yard in Redland at the age of eighty eight years, although she had to trick the riding mower’s safety system into letting her mow. She weighed so little the mower “thought” no one was in the seat, so she stacked bricks on the seat and sat on them. She loved jokes and John Wayne, and watched old westerns on her television every day, usually accompanied by her favorite source of nutrition, hot chocolate milk.
Rita was a cradle-to-grave Southern Baptist, reared in the same church in Redland where her father, Corley, directed music, and her mother, Cecil, presided over the WMU. While her life was in many ways idyllic, she also suffered great losses. Her father died while in his early sixties. Her second son, Jeffrey Keith, born with an inoperable heart defect, died at the age of twelve. She survived the loss of both of her siblings, her sister, Barbara Jean Pinner and her brother, B. C. Fenley, Jr. to whom she was especially close. She felt these losses deeply.
Shortly after the death of her husband, Arden, she also faced the heart-breaking loss of her beloved home when the State of Texas decided to widen Highway 59 through Redland into a freeway. The loss of her home and gardens and displacement from life-long friends in her little community was a grief from which she never fully recovered, although she put on a brave face and tried hard to be content in her new home on Saint Simons Island, Georgia. She lived there, a few houses away from her surviving son and daughter-in-law for just over two years before suffering a stroke and dying after a brief stay in the Brunswick Hospital. Rita will be buried in the old Walker Cemetery in Redland, next to her husband, Arden, her son, Keith, her mother and her father.
In addition to her surviving son, the Reverend Dr. Michael Jinkins and his wife Dr. Deborah Bradshaw Jinkins (of Saint Simons Island, Georgia), she is survived by two grandchildren, the Reverend Jeremy Michael Jinkins and his wife, the Reverend Caroline Anderson Jinkins (of Westfield, New Jersey) and Jessica Michelle Jinkins (of Brunswick, Georgia); and three adored great grandchildren, Grace, Clara and Anderson. She is also survived by her beloved sister-in-law, Linda Kerr Fenley, whom she always thought of as a sister, and by nephews Todd and Scott, and nieces Debbie, Donna, and Darla.
A graveside memorial will be conducted at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, February 25, 2022 in the Walker Cemetery, and friends are welcome.
The family will receive friends from 10: a.m. to 11:00 a.m. Friday morning at Gipson Funeral Home.
Condolences may be offered at www.gipsonfuneralhome.com
Services have been placed in the trust of Gipson Funeral Home.
