Jeanette Lloyd Durkin

Jeanette Durkin passed away peacefully at the age of 90 on June 21, 2024 after a short but very serious illness. She had been sleeping for almost a week in the IC unit at Ascension Seton Hospital when she passed. She was in no pain thankfully and the room had been warmly transformed by bringing portraits and other memorabilia from home. She was surrounded by her family and two caregivers who had lovingly tended to her since she suffered a spinal cord injury in 2009.

Jeanette is survived by Jim, her husband and loving companion of 46 years, her children Karen, Katherine, John, Marie and Natalie, grandchildren Felicity, Charissa, Cadence, Ian, Reilly, Rani, Zina, Meghan, Kelsey, Genevieve, Charlie and Rene and a dozen great grandchildren with two more on the way and also a sister, Frances. Jeanette was preceded in death by her parents Douglas and Gertrude, also known as “Annie and “Pappy” by the children, and her oldest son Bill.

Jeanette’s earthly journey so recently completed in Austin began very inauspiciously years ago in the tiny Kentucky hamlet of Farmington. Her pregnant mother had accompanied her father and grandfather on a trip north in search of business opportunities. Her mother, becoming tired from the traveling, stayed behind to rest in Farmington while the men went on. Coming a little earlier than expected, Jeanette’s mother went into labor and gave birth to her, with the assistance of a midwife, in the small white farmhouse where they were staying. With the financial generosity of fine folks of Farmington, mother and daughter were able to return via train to their Texas home.

There is very little if anything inauspicious about the rest of Jeanette’s life.

Jeanette grew up in the Heights neighborhood of Houston, graduating in 1950 from John H. Reagan High School. She was a classmate of Dan Rather, our beloved American Journalist. Soon after graduation, the Prudential Company selected her from hundreds of applicants to join 15 young women and come to its Newark NJ headquarters for training. Prudential was building a new regional headquarters in Houston and wanted them to become the new locations’ goodwill ambassadors giving tours to visitors and answering their questions. Jeanette then hopped a train to Newark where she and the other young women lived in shared apartments for several weeks while they trained. After finishing the Prudential assignment she trained in ballroom dance with the Arthur Murry Dance Studio in Houston and became a studio dance instructor.

In 1953 Jeanette first married and began her family. In 1976 with her children in their teens or older she went to work for Touche Ross & Co, one of the largest public accounting and consulting firms in the country. She rapidly progressed in responsibility there and soon was functioning as administrative assistant to its senior partners. She was known throughout the office for her running, while wearing high heals, on her rounds from place to place instead of walking. Also It was here that she met her to be husband Jim.

Jeanette was also president of the CPA Secretaries Association in Houston which sponsored an annual charitable fund raising dinner. A most memorable such dinner featured as its keynote speaker Lynn Ashby, who was a widely read syndicated columnist for the Houston Post and Chronicle. He was also known for his devilish yet warm sense of humor. Jeanette had the honor of introducing Lynn to the audience after which he came to the lectern and thanked her for the wonderfully mediocre introduction. Lynn proceeded with his presentation which consisted of pretty standard dinner speech fare. When he finished Jeanette thanked him for his presentation which so fully lived up to its introduction. Lynn was so delighted. He praised her spirit and told her in all his experience speaking and writing he had never seen a more brilliant retort.

In 1979 Jeanette enrolled as a part time student at the University of Houston. She was able to attend full time her senior year when she graduated cum laude in 1989 with a BS degree in Psychology. After graduating she participated in grant funded projects with the U of H faculty. In 1990 she was hired by Cigna Healthcare as physician recruiter for the HMO they were establishing in Houston

In 1993 Jeanette completed a 4 year program of theological education, Education for Ministry, presented by the University of the South’s School of Theology. The purpose of the program as she understood it is to raise our consciousness from of a view of the world as a panoply of events, people and things so numerous and recurring that we label them as ordinary - to a view that recognizes the sacredness in all that appears merely ordinary. It’s not that we become ministers preaching the gospel like we experience in our churches. Rather we become aware that all we do right now in our occupations, jobs and various roles as parents, spouses and friends that contributes to the well-being of others is also a ministry and has a sacred dimension. Jeanette became a mentor facilitating this program from 1993-2005. She practiced the principles of this program in all her affairs.

In 1995 Jeanette accepted Bishop Jim Folts appointment of her to serve as his Deputy for Christian Education in the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. She was responsible for the support of over 80 churches requiring extensive travel. Her primary passion in this position was to assist parishes wanting to implement an inspired new children’s program developed by Jerome Berryman called Godly Play. The mission of Godly Play is “Making meaning through story, wonder and play. Nurturing spiritual lives by honoring the centrality , competency and capacity of children”. Jeanette had seen first hand how well this program worked in practice and saw to it that all parishes who wanted it were able to implement it. Jeanette served the diocese through 2000.

In 2000 Jeanette entered the orbit of Jacquelyn Small who is recognized as a pioneer in the transpersonal/spiritual approach to the healing of addiction. Through her organization, the Eupsychia Institute, Jeanette was trained in soul-based psychology and integrative breathwork. This included processes for becoming more in touch with our inner worlds, home to our dreams, true selves, souls and interconnected to consciousness and all of creation. Jeanette was especially moved by two of her books, “The Sacred Purpose of Being Human” and “Becoming Naturally Therapeutic: A Return to the True Essence of Helping”.

In 2005 Jeanette enrolled in the University of Philosophical Research with a plan to earn a Master’s Degree in Transformational Psychology. She completed all her course work in 2008. She chose for her Master’s Thesis the topic of the psychology and spirituality of L. Frank Baum as gleaned from the “Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. She passed her final exam but was unable to complete her thesis due to the spinal cord injury she sustained in 2009.

In 2009 Jeanette incurred a spinal cord injury (SCI) due to an autoimmune condition called transverse myelitis. The effect of this once the transverse myelitis dissipated was a permanent paralysis from the mid chest level and below, requiring confinement to a wheelchair. For the first three years following the injury she was in constant pain with severe leg tremors requiring extensive and powerful medications. Miraculously at the three year point her spinal cord below the injury site atrophied. The result was a complete cessation of the pain and tremors with no increase in paralysis. The Jeanette we all knew and loved returned and remained with us until her passing.

In connection with her process of coming to terms with the enormous consequences this injury was having on her and those she loved, Jeanette wondered why such an injury was given to her-not done to her but given to her. Having 3 years of rehab by now Jeanette was a beloved member of the SCI community at the Seton Brain & Spine rehab center. Two very young women then joined the rehab group after sustaining severe injuries that were in no way the result of any negligence on their part. They were angry and understandably so. Responding to this Jeanette formed an SCI Peer group which met once a week at the pizza joint next to the rehab center where fellow SCI patients with more experience with their injuries could share what has worked for them with those who were just beginning rehab; thus transforming the trauma and pain experienced in their own recovery to the benefit of others.

We have been blessed over the past 15 years to have been able to attend many of the Austin Ballet performances Jeanette so loved and have had innumerable family gatherings at home and at our favorite restaurants. Two very special of these events were the family reunions in 2013 and 2023 celebrating her 80th and 90th birthdays. We celebrated these events at Jack Allen’s Restaurant because Jeanette loved their food as did we all and because she very much valued the owners’ generous support of the Lone Star Paralysis Foundation.

There will be a Memorial Service for Jeanette on August 24,2024. More details to come closer to her Memorial Service.