Former township clerk and local bank teller Helen M. Jencks of Oxford, formerly of Ortonville, died Jan. 30.
She was 89.
Jencks attended Ortonville High School and served as Brandon Township clerk from 1953 until 1960. She also worked for many years at the Genesee Merchants Bank.
‘When I was a teenager I would go to the bank with my parents paychecks and Helen as the teller would just do whatever was written on the note,? said Karen McArthur, Brandon Township elections coordinator and neighbor of Helen. ‘Helen would give me whatever money I was supposed to take home. She was never wrong.?
‘Helen lived just down Schoolhouse Street from me. At Christmas, we would exchange little gifts around the neighborhood? jams, hard candy, cookies. My children always looked forward to Helen from the corner’s gift. Many of us on Schoolhouse Street still do that.?
‘Helen loved watermelon and insisted upon having watermelon every Fourth of July.?
Helen was the wife of the late Russell Jencks.
Beloved mother of Linda Tallmadge of Apache Junction, Ariz. and Nancy Bartle of Oxford. Dear sister of Donald (Barbara) Tucker of Escondido, Calif. Dear grandmother of Katie, Beth, Matthew and Michael. Jencks was a member of the Ortonville Baptist Church, the Ortonville Women’s Club and the Ortonville Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star.
Funeral services are at 11 a.m. Monday from the Sherman Wilk Funeral Home, 135 South St., Ortonville. Interment in Ortonville Cemetery.
Jencks will lie in state at the funeral home Sunday 2-5 p.m. Donations may be given to the Alzheimer’s Association, envelopes available at the funeral home.