Clovis Senior in the Spotlight: Karen Olsen Jenkins

I was born in Ogden, Utah, weighing in at 4-pounds, 6-ounces, screaming my head off and causing all sorts of commotion then. Ask Vernon if I am still causing commotion.

In August, two months later, my folks took me on my first of many trips to Yellowstone National Park; my bed was my father’s shoe box. Over the next few years I was given the gifts of a brother and sister. We were a very closely knit family.

As we grew older, my father taught us how to fish; worms were not my favorite thing, but I learned to bait my own hook. Any fish I caught, I got to clean — not my favorite thing to do either. He taught me how to tie my own flies and I learned to “fly” the Yellowstone and Snake rivers and many streams, doing it quite well.

I learned to play the piano and accompanied my father whenever he played. He was an accomplished musician of various instruments; clarinet was his favorite. He was an excellent oil artist, as well. My mother taught me the finer arts of crocheting, knitting, embroidery and sewing my own clothes through college.

Weber State College is where I majored in physical education with desires to be a sports teacher in schools; I also minored in English. But I got married in 1960 and moved to Logan, Utah where I got the job as secretary to the head of the agriculture department at Utah State University. I earned extra money by proofreading, sketching, and typing students’ master theses. My husband graduated and we moved to Tremonton, Utah, where he was the music director and taught German at the high school.

I’ve been married to some good men but divorce and/or death took them from me. I had two wonderful children, Gregg and Barbara, and helped raise two lovely step-children, Jeff and Julie. I now enjoy all my grandchildren and watching them grow into beautiful young adults, some with families of their own.

I am a member of the Moose and Eagles Fraternal Organization’s Auxiliaries, having gone “through the chairs” to being president. I am also involved with the Clovis Elks. As a member of the Women of the Moose, I was nominated “California/Nevada Woman of the Year” for my volunteer and community service for over a three year period. I won that honor and went to national convention in Philadelphia where I was named and received the overall honor of “International Woman of the Year.” It was a great honor and surprise, one of the few times in my life I was at a loss for words.

Over the years I have played the ukulele, piano, organ, flute, guitar and gut bucket. While as a member of the Sanger Eagles, they had a group of musicians who had a band and played often. I was taught the guitar and invited to play with them at home and at Quartzside, Arizona, which I did for about five years. I met several celebrities who knew this band and would stop in and play a song or two then leave. It was a lot of fun.

After several years my husband and I decided to do some RV traveling and we started working for Adventure Caravans as “Tall Gunners” on caravans to Mexico, Alaska and Canada. This was a good time and we enjoyed it immensely for three years until my husband died of cancer.

I lived on our Sanger ranch where he had taught me how to drive a tractor to maintain the 10 acres, to set and work with PVC pipe and drip-lines for the fruit trees. This definitely was not my favorite thing. So I decided to move to Harmony Bay, a senior living complex in Clovis and got busy with their many activities. I still call bingo three days a week.

I was a caregiver for several elderly people, one of which I took to the Clovis Senior Activity Center on Wednesdays to listen to the wonderful music and have great lunches. It was here I was introduced to Vernon Jenkins and we just celebrated our first wedding anniversary. We enjoy the many friends we have met through our RV travels and dancing that we do at the senior center and other places around the area. This is my favorite thing!

This story was originally published August 16, 2016 at 10:35 AM with the headline "Clovis Senior in the Spotlight: Karen Olsen Jenkins."