Our Tribal Historian is with the ancestors

My mother Lois Diana Burns Jenkins passed away after 10:00 PM on Monday, August 26, 2024. Until her very last breath she fought a long courageous battle against an illness.

One of her last acts as our Tribal Historian (Emeritus) was to take an Ancestry DNA test and made many discoveries with regards to her maternal grandmother's family (Emma Hunter Burns). I was glad even as she was in the hospital in May that she was still willing to do so.

She was also in on a call with a member of the extended family another act to help expand knowledge of her maternal grandfather (James Lee Burns) family's roots. Something written about briefly on this blog.

She was a longtime banker who first started at the First National Bank of Chicago where she was a Trust Officer and then later became a Vice President at the Black-owned lender Seaway National Bank of Chicago.

She graduated from JFK High School in Mound Bayou, MISS and after a period of part-time study she gained her undergrad degree in Human Resources at DePaul University in Chicago, ILL.

There won't be any services per her request.

Lois B. Jenkins ✞ (1949-2024)

Three other sisters preceded her in transition to the ancestors: Harrell E. Howard, Cynthia B. Howard Wilkerson, and Gwendolyn F. Burns. She was also preceded by her parents Leo C. White and Gurtine Burns Howard. Also preceding her journey to the ancestors is her childhood sweetheart and husband Levi Jenkins Jr. 

I will also add as an ardent writer and editor, she'd have me edit this numerous times had she known about this post.