John Herbert Jenkins

The final notes of an illustrious singing career were heard by family members who surrounded their father, Jack Jenkins, as he passed away on Thursday, March 16, marking the end of a musical career that he shared for nearly 50 years with his late wife, Sally.

The beautiful and handsome couple, regarded in the 1960s and 1970s as America’s foremost singing duo, performed in countless supper clubs, college campuses and nightclubs throughout the country. They performed songs from the American Song Book, including Cole Porter and George & Ira Gershwin, as well as songs from the Broadway stage, at such venues as the Miami Beach Fontainebleau and the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas. “Tampa’s Singing Sweethearts” also appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show where they sang “Moon River” (available for viewing on YouTube) as well as performed with Bob Hope during his USO tour.

John Herbert Jenkins, better known as Jack Jenkins, was born in Chicago, Illinois, on September 16, 1935, to John Herbert Jenkins and Catherine Marie Looney, the third of five children. Jack’s mother was an accomplished musician who had earned a scholarship to Julliard in both harp and piano but opted instead to marry Jack’s father. Nonetheless, in later years she supported four of her five children by playing piano in supper clubs through the South.

When Jack was seven years of age, the family moved to Fort Lauderdale where he attended elementary school at St. Anthony Catholic School and during summer months hiked with his two brothers, barefoot, from their home in northeast Fort Lauderdale on hot asphalt along what is today known as East Sunrise Blvd. to the beach were the only shops and high rises along this causeway at the time were sand spurs and palmetto bushes.

Following their parents’ divorce, the family packed into a 1937 Chevrolet that included Jack’s mother, his grandmother, his uncle Joe Looney just recovering from injuries suffered in the landing at Normandy, his three other siblings and a dog named Toodles. After two years in the Los Angeles area, they rebounded to Florida where Jack’s mother was able to enroll all three boys in St. Leo College Prep north of Tampa and daughter Mary Anne at nearby Holy Name Academy.

Jack was a superb athlete at St. Leo, lettering in four sports: quarterback on the varsity football team, high scorer on the basketball team, a left-handed pitcher and he ran track. But Jack withdrew from St. Leo in his senior year, hitchhiked from Florida to Indiana to see his father and then on to New Mexico to find his uncle Joe before he returned to Florida whereupon he and his brother Tom moved to Tampa to join their mother.

While in Tampa, Jack started his singing career, performing at the age of 18 in a variety of night clubs. It was there that Jack developed his command of songs and stage presence that remained with him over the years.

Shortly thereafter, his mother and young sister moved back to California whereupon Jack and brother Tom cut slats for venetian blinds in Ybor City for a year, saved $99 and spent five days and four nights on a Trailways bus between Tampa and Los Angeles to join their mother and younger sister. However, Jack’s stay in California was short-lived as he decided to return to Florida which was the single best move of his life.

The transition back to Tampa was not an easy one for Jack as he tried to find his way in the world without the support of family but he was rescued, literally and figuratively, by a gentleman named Tony Garcia who at the time headed the USO in Tampa. Tony was largely responsible for assisting Jack in gaining his high school diploma, encouraging him to apply for a music scholarship at the University of Tampa (UT) and introducing him to his future wife, Sally Wallace.

While at UT, both Sally and Jack were vying for a full scholarship in Music. One day, Professor Albert Lyman Wiltse, who was in charge of awarding scholarships in music at UT, told Sally that he could not decide who, Sally or Jack, should be awarded the full scholarship and who should be given the half scholarship. Sally made it easy for the professor by telling him, “Give the full scholarship to Jack, he needs it more than I do.” And those final two words – “I do” – were the basis for a long and loving life together.

After their marriage on May 13, 1960, the couple toured the country performing with the Guy Lombardo Orchestra and performing in a number of productions including, as might be expected, “I Do! I Do!” (ironically the story of a couple’s life together over 50 years of marriage) along with R.S.V.P. The Cole Porters and other musicals. But, despite this busy schedule, Sally and Jack found time to raise a family, first their daughter Letitia, who subsequently performed with her parents, and then twin sons Todd and Ryan, all three of whom were present when Jack took his final breath.

In 1989, Jack and Sally moved to St. Simons Island in Georgia where Jack became Entertainment Director at The Cloister Hotel. They produced many musical Cabaret shows at The Cloister and Jack, as part of his entertainment duties, conducted regular sessions as the now legendary “Billy Bingo” performing songs while conducting this popular game for which hotel requests were required to reserve seats in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom in order to attend this popular show. Jack remained in his role of “Billy Bingo” until his retirement in 2015 at the age of 80.

Sally was killed in an auto accident on March 25, 2006, when an SUV driver without license and driving an unregistered vehicle ran a red light and crashed into the Jenkins’ vehicle that was entering an intersection in Brunswick, Georgia.

All who knew Sally and Jack, according to daughter Letitia, say they were two people in a single person: “You never said ‘Jack’ or ‘Sally,’ you said ‘Jack and Sally’ because “They were one.” And Jack’s brother Tom, when dining with them on occasion in a restaurant, thought they were “cheap” because they would only order a single entree, only later concluding that everything that they did was done together, “They breathed the same air.”

Jack is survived by his three children, Letitia Rossi, Todd Jenkins (Sebestina) and Ryan Jenkins (Danielle); his brother, Tom Jenkins (Gayle); six grandchildren, Alexa, Connor, Greyson, Océane, Olivia and Erin and a great grandchild, Emelia Cates.

A Funeral Mass will be held on Friday, March 31, 2023, at 10:30 a.m. at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, 13591 Prosperity Farms Road, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. A reception at the church will follow the funeral mass.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Jack & Sally Jenkins Music Service Endowment at the University of Tampa, 401 W. Kennedy Blvd., Box H, Tampa, FL 33606-1490.