Cecelia Cleon (Bell) Jenkins

Cecelia Cleon Jenkins, age 93 of Clifton, passed away at her home on March 4, 2019.

Memorial services will be held at 10:30 A.M., Saturday, March 16, 2019 at Lawson Funeral Home in Meridian. Services will be officiated by Pastor Brad Slaten of King United Memorial Methodist Church.  Inurnment will be at a later date in the Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas.

Cecelia Cleon Bell was born on January 6, 1926 in Plainview Texas to Cecil Charles and Lillie Cleo Davis Bell, shortly after they moved to their first farm in Hale County.  She was the 4th daughter born after Joyce, Jolene and Bernice, followed by 2 brothers, Charles and James. All but James graduated from Hale Center High School.  Their close-knit family banded together to survive the Crash of ’29, the Great Depression and farming in the middle of the Dust Bowl.  Cecelia once wrote in a tribute to her parents, “I do feel that all the children of Cecil and Cleo Bell won the jack pot, one that can’t be measured in dollars; our childhood was priceless.”

Cecelia married John L. Jenkins on January 1, 1944 in Clovis, New Mexico. They had 4 daughters; Pam was born in Plainview, Martha and Phyllis in Lafayette, Louisiana and Jan in Abilene. The Borden Co. moved John to San Antonio in 1958, and the family settled in the rural community of Adkins, where they raised Quarter Horses.  Cecelia went to work in a dental office in 1961, and eventually advanced from dental assistant to instructor at San Antonio College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health Education.  After John L. died in 1973, Cecelia worked as a dental hygiene instructor at TSTC in Waco Texas for a number of years before she retired to build her dream house near Lake Whitney.

She is survived by her daughters, Pamela Ann Jordan of New Jersey and Janalyn Jenkins of Meridian; 6 grandchildren; Jessica Jordan, Tonya Sikes (Kauffman), Sherrie Sikes, Cindy Sams, Donna Sikes, and Robbin Rockett (Eriksson), 6 great-grandchildren; Brian and Brady Kauffman, Sophie Sikes, Stephen, Tyler and Sofia Eriksson, 2 great-great-grandchildren; Brinley Evelyn and Bayleigh Marie Kauffman, 5 nieces; 7 nephews; sister-in-law, Mary Lynn Manning of Clarendon, Texas; many other friends and relatives.

She is preceded in death by her parents, Cecil Charles and Lillie Cleo Davis Bell; her husband, John L. Jenkins, daughters, Phyllis Rockett, Martha Cecelia Bright of Fort Worth, sisters, Joyce Teague, Jolene Bledsoe, Bernice Schmidt, brothers Charles Bell, James Bell; and grandson, Kevin Rockett.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to:
Meals on Wheels, 2000 Old Brandon Rd, Hillsboro, TX 76645

Hale County Farm and Ranch Museum, 1434 Interstate Highway 27, Hale Center TX 79041

Words of comfort and peace can be sent to the family at www.lawsonfuneralhome.net

Arrangements were made by Lawson Funeral Home, Meridian, Texas 254-435-2792.