Sincere condolences are sent to the Jenkins family on the demise of Michele Jenkins, who passed away recently. At twelve o’clock in the afternoon on Thursday, March 21st, there will be a celebration of Michele’s life. In the vicinity of the Red Cross, in the Estavesa Tanatorio Mazarron.
Keith and his family invite everyone and everyone to join them. As a devoted wife, sister, mother, grandmother, business associate, and friend, she will be sorely lost for all time, but she will never be forgotten.
Michele Miller was the eldest of four children and was born on January 24, 1951 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her parents, Pearl and Harold Miller, were her parents. After moving to San Jose when Michele was three months old, the family moved to the San Fernando Valley, then moved back up to the Santa Clarita Valley, and finally settled in Santa Clarita Valley altogether. For the majority of her life, Michele would consider the valley to be her home. She had been a resident of Santa Clarita since 1964.
Throughout her childhood, Michele was a naturally born caregiver. In addition to assisting in the care of her younger siblings, she took great pleasure in playing with her Chatty Cathy doll with such enthusiasm that she wore it to the point of tatters. Michele was the one who was able to persuade her brother Russ to come down from the tree that he had climbed up during recess at school. She made a joke to him that said, “You’re going to be really sorry!” Russ had gone up the tree during recess and the instructors and principal were unable to convince him to come down.
Michele Davis, then a junior at William S. Hart High School, went to a school football game in 1966, and it was there that she made the acquaintance of a young man called Gregory “Dean” Jenkins. With a beaming smile on her face, Michele said, “He was the first man to ever buy me a Coke!” and the rest, as they say, is history. Dean made the offer to bring her a soda.
Almost immediately after that, they discovered that they were expecting a child, which they concealed until three days before the birth of their son Gregory Jr., and then they tied the knot five days after that. A young whirlwind of a passion that eventually developed into a steady and indelible love took place between the two of them. They had been together for 54 years, and throughout that time, they had been each other’s greatest love.
While Michele was still a young mother, she matured rapidly, became ambitious in her objectives, and worked tirelessly to achieve her goals. She was able to balance her academic studies with her responsibilities as a child care provider, and she dealt with everything with the utmost attention, enthusiasm, and happiness.
Following the completion of her associate’s degree at the College of the Canyons (COC), she went on to acquire a Bachelor of Arts degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and a Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of North Dakota. Michele and Greg welcomed their daughter Lorian into the world fifteen years after the birth of their son. This occurred after they had relocated their family to Santa Clarita and had been living there for some time after that.
Michele had a life that was rich and varied, and she was dedicated to a considerable number of different aspects of the Santa Clarita community. Not only did she manage the family medical practice that her husband owned, but she also played an active and compassionate part in her alma mater, the College of the Canyons, by providing assistance for a wide variety of programs, activities, and initiatives. Michele was the member of the COC Board of Trustees who had the longest tenure, having joined in 1984 and spending seven terms as clerk, five stints as vice president, and six terms as president.
At the state level, she served on the Board of Directors of the California Community College Trustees (CCCT) from 1994 to 2005, during which time she was elected president. Additionally, she was a member of the Advisory Committee on Educational Services for the Community College League of California.
